The National Highways Logistics Management Ltd (NHLM), a unit of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has floated a fresh tender to build a multi modal logistics park at Bengaluru with private funds after an earlier attempt collapsed due to the presence of a single bidder.
Reliance Industries Ltd and Prakash Asphaltings and Toll Highways (India) Ltd had applied for the multi modal logistics park planned to be developed on 400 acres at Muddalinganahalli in Bengaluru Rural district. Prakash Asphaltings and Toll Highways was disqualified from the tender.
On 15 December, the National Highways Logistics Management issued a notice cancelling the bid process without assigning reasons.
A fresh tender for the multimodal logistics park at Muddalinganahalli was issued on the same day.
“We received two bids for the project and one of them could not qualify, resulting in a single bid situation,” Prakash Gaur, Chief Executive Officer, National Highways Logistics Management Ltd told ET Infra, explaining why the tender was annulled.
“There was a lot of interest in the market for the project and 4-5 bidders were asking for time extension. Unfortunately, we could not extend the timeline and many of them could not participate that time. I am sure all of them will participate this time,” Gaur added.
Public authorities typically refrain from processing a single bid per guidelines issued by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). In case, the second round of tendering also fetched a single bid, the authority floating the tender was allowed to take a call on the bid.
However, in October 2021, the Union government scrapped the “practice” followed by public authorities to reject a single bid during open tenders, stating that it should be considered valid subject to some conditions.
“It has become a practice among some procuring entities to routinely assume that open tenders which result in single bids are not acceptable and to go for re-tender as a ‘safe’ course of action. This is not correct,” said the ‘General Instructions on Procurement and Project Management’ issued by the government on October 29, 2021, which is applicable to Central Government Ministries/Departments, Attached/Subordinate bodies including Autonomous Bodies or Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE).
“Lack of competition shall not be determined solely on the basis of the number of bidders. Even when only one bid is submitted, the process should be considered valid provided the procurement was satisfactorily advertised and sufficient time was given for submission of bids, the qualification criteria were not unduly restrictive and prices are reasonable in comparison to market values,” the government said in the new ‘General Instructions on Procurement and Project Management’.
The Development, Operation and Maintenance of the Multimodal Logistics Park at Muddalinganahalli is being implemented through Public Private Partnership (PPP) on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis with an investment of some Rs935.90 crores.
The bid will be decided on the basis of minimum guaranteed revenue share – the entity offering the highest revenue share to the National Highways Logistics Management – gets the contract to develop and run the facility for a concession period of 45 years.
Under the ‘PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP)’, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways plans to develop 35 multi modal logistics parks across India, 15 of them in the next three years.
The first such logistics park at Mappedu near Chennai in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur district was awarded to Reliance Industries Ltd through a competitive bid in November.
A multi modal logistics park is a cargo consolidation and distribution centre using multiple modes of transport to achieve scale in shipments and provides various logistics and other value-added services.
It acts as an intermodal freight-handling facility with mechanized material handling provisions that contains warehouses, specialized cold chain facilities, freight/container terminals, and bulk/break-bulk cargo terminals.
Typically, MMLPs include inter-modal connectivity such as dedicated railway line/spur, access from prominent highways/expressways to allow movement of commercial vehicles and connectivity to an airport or a seaport or inland waterway terminal.
The value-added services provided by a MMLP includes customs clearance, late-stage processing activities such as sorting/grading, aggregation/ disaggregation, cold storage etc. to provide flexibility to the users at a single location.
