Century Plyboards (India) Ltd has emerged as the top bidder to modernise and mechanise a cluster of six berths in Calcutta’s Khidderpore Docks, marking a major milestone in private sector participation in the city’s century old port operation.

Once fully operational, these berths under KPD -1 (West), will create additional port capacity in eastern India by installing mechanised systems to handle containers as well as clean bulk cargo such as pulses and fertilisers.

The project will be the first instance of a public-private-partnership in Calcutta Dock System. Once formalised, Century is going to have a 30-year contract to run the operation on a build-operate-own-transfer basis.

Apart from Century, there were three other contenders who participated in the final round of the tender. Adani, which initially showed interest in the project, finally stayed away, port sources said. The company is, however, on course to bag the contract to operate a fully mechanised coal berth at Haldia.

The Calcutta contract envisages equipping the berths to handle 330,000 containers and 650,000 tonne of cargo per annum in two phases. The project cost is pegged around Rs 200 crore. The tender, which was opened on Thursday, would take a few weeks to finalise.

Century, a major player in the plywood industry, has been involved with logistic operations from 2001 when it started to operate a jetty at Falta’s export processing zone in South 24-Paragana district of Bengal.

It later developed two container freight stations (CFS) in and around Calcutta Dock System in 2008 and 2010. However, the KPD-1 (West) contract would allow Century, which has a market capitalisation over Rs 13,000 crore, to develop the logistic business further.

Asutosh Jaiswal, president of international business and logistic division of Century Plyboards, said mechanised operation is likely to start in 15 months.

“The city has earned a bad name for tardy port operation. Our effort will be to change the perception with ease of doing business and bring down the cost of doing business,” he said.

At present, only bulk cargo is handled at KPD-1 (West) of Khidderpore Docks of CDS. With the mechanisation, which involves installing mobile harbour crane, container operation will also start.

Even though port operation started in Khidderpore more than 150 years ago, the bulk of the cargo operations now take place at Haldia where multiple private operators are already deployed. Being closer to the sea and offering a deeper river draft that allows larger ships to call at Haldia than Calcutta.

Under Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Calcutta (erstwhile Calcutta Port Trust), CDS — comprising Khidderpore and Netaji Subhas Dock — handled 11.11 million tonne cargo in the first 9 months of 2021-22, up by 2.25 per cent in the same period last year. Most of it was in containers.

In contrast, Haldia handled 31.03 MT cargo between April-December, down by 4.8 per cent from the previous year. Majority of the cargo at Haldia was bulk and liquid cargo.