What is the value of a port berth when it is licensed rather than operated?

What is the value of a port berth when it is licensed rather than operated?

Two organisations are about to find out, and they are doing so in different ways. Haldia Dock Complex is providing Berth 1 for licensing in order to carry out integrated dry bulk handling, on an operation and maintenance royalty basis, with the deadline for submission being 15 September. The Ministry of Shipping is running a request for proposals for an operator of General Cargo Berth-1 under the UEOMT scheme, covering upgradation, equipping, operations, maintenance and transfer, with the closing date set for 21 September.

The two arrangements deal with the same fundamental decision but divide the risks differently. In the case of an operation and maintenance royalty licence, the asset and the capital remain with the authority and the authority receives operating performance in return, the licensee paying a royalty based on the volume of throughput. With UEOMT, the operator is required to carry out the upgradation and equipping of the berth first, and recovers the investment over the operating period before the asset is returned. One is an operating contract; the other is an investment contract disguised as an operating contract.

In our view, the choice indicates what each authority believes its berth is lacking. Haldia is purchasing productivity from an asset that it considers to be sufficient. The Ministry of Shipping is acquiring capital that it would prefer not to raise on its own. An operator who treats both cases the same way will be mispricing one of them.

Source and reference: Central Public Procurement Portal. Before taking action, confirm the date on the portal. · etenders.gov.in · Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port and Ministry of Shipping

How fast is Kolkata moving on the inland waterways?

So fast that the two organisations together have 43 live tenders, and that figure is ours. Two of the notices specify the direction of travel: the development of KPD II as a multi-modal terminal on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis, and dredging at Haldia being awarded on an EPC basis.

A multi-modal terminal on a DBFOT basis is not a port expansion; it is a modal transfer point obtained through a concession. Under the DBFOT arrangement, the developer takes on the finance and the traffic risk throughout the concession period. The fact that KPD II is being procured in this way shows that the authority believes there is a viable cargo case for goods to be carried by river into and out of Kolkata; a position that the inland waterways programme has held for ten years but which it has seldom put to the test with private investment.

The dredging indicates the constraint. By awarding the Haldia dredging work on an EPC basis rather than as a rolling maintenance contract, depth is treated as a capital project with a specific output rather than as an annual expense. In our view, this is the first step that must be taken if the terminal concession is to be financeable at all. No depth, no cargo, no annuity.

It is the most difficult place in India to make that argument work, which is why it is the most interesting one. Kolkata is a river port situated a long way upstream and has silted up since it came into existence; its throughput has always relied on maintained depth rather than natural depth. If the concession model can be made financeable here, then it can be made financeable at any point on the system.

Source and reference: Central Public Procurement Portal. Please check the date on the portal before taking any action. · etenders.gov.in · Tenders by Organisation

Which tender is due to close tomorrow?

Two inland cutter suction dredgers. The Ministry of Shipping is launching a tender for the design, engineering, construction, testing, commissioning, sea trials, delivery and warranty of two vessels, with the tender closing on 8 September. It is the most time-sensitive item in this week's transport book.

The scope is the key point. This is not a charter and it does not constitute a dredging services contract; it is actually shipbuilding, with a single contractor responsible for the vessels from the design stage through to sea trials and the warranty period. A cutter suction dredger is the type of machine used when the material is hard, compacted or rocky rather than free-flowing silt, and by specifying inland variants it indicates that the work will be carried out on rivers and canals rather than on approach channels.

When you compare this tender with the Haldia dredging package and the other items in the inland waterways section, a clear pattern emerges. You first buy the depth as a project and then take ownership of the equipment that maintains it. According to our interpretation, the government is choosing to hold onto the asset rather than renting out capacity from the seasonal contract dredging market.

The timing is the reason why this tender appears in The Window rather than in another section. A tender that ends the day after it is published is not an opportunity for anyone who reads about it here first, and we would prefer to state that clearly rather than pretend it isn't the case. Its value lies in acting as a marker: this is what the buyer wants, this is the way it is packaged, and the following tender will be similar.

Source and reference: Central Public Procurement Portal. Before taking any action, verify the date on the portal. · etenders.gov.in · Ministry of Shipping

Which maritime organisation outbids the ports and why isn't it one?

The Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships. It has 32 live tenders on the central portal, compared with Mumbai Port having 19, New Mangalore Port having 16 and Jawaharlal Nehru Port having 7. The only body that has more is the Ministry of Shipping itself, with 41.

This figure contradicts a reasonable assumption. Maritime procurement is usually thought of as ports purchasing cranes, berths and dredging, and the ports are indeed making such purchases: Kolkata Port has 29 live tenders and Andaman and Lakshadweep Harbour Works has 12. Yet the most active maritime authority on the portal is the organisation responsible for aids to navigation, not any of the agencies that handle cargo.

There is a structural explanation. Lighthouses, buoys, beacons, racons and vessel traffic services constitute a spread-out estate made up of many small assets along the coastline, and such a distributed estate leads to a large number of low-value tenders. A port, on the other hand, is a concentrated estate that results in fewer, higher-value tenders. In our view, the tender count reflects the shape of an estate rather than the amount spent, and therefore a supplier who ranks buyers solely on the basis of count will end up targeting the wrong ones.

The opposite lesson is more useful. Although Jawaharlal Nehru Port handles a large portion of the country's container traffic and appears here with seven live tenders, this tells us very little about its spending. When assessing a maritime opportunity, count and value must be treated as two separate issues, and the portal only answers one of them.

Source and reference: Central Public Procurement Portal. Check the date on the portal before taking any action. · etenders.gov.in · Tenders by Organisation

Who is altering the rulebook for the trusts that own India's infrastructure?

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is doing so, having moved four times this year. There were three separate consultations concerning the Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) and Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) frameworks in 2026, along with a circular being issued at the same time.

The four in chronological order were: a consultation on Net Distributable Cash Flows on 1 June, one on Depository Receipts relating to REIT and InvIT units on 4 August, another on the Ease of Doing Business for REITs and InvITs on 6 August, and a circular on the calculation of Net Distributable Cash Flows on 14 August. Two of the four deal with the same issue, namely how much cash a trust is required to distribute and how that amount is calculated.

None of these individual consultations is anything new. Taken together, they show a regulator who is adjusting the instrument that Indian infrastructure firms are increasingly using to hold finished assets such as roads, transmission lines, telecom towers, fibre networks and warehouses. In our view, the cash flow definition is the key one, since it determines the actual amount that a unit holder receives and thus what a sponsor can raise when selling a completed asset.

That is the reason why this matter should be considered in the context of transport rather than finance. The trusts currently being revised are the final owners of the roads, terminals and warehouses that fall within the remit of this department. A developer who focuses only on the procurement stage of the process sees the asset come into being and then completely loses sight of it at the very point when its value is determined. The rulebook applicable at that moment is now being rewritten.

Source and reference: Securities and Exchange Board of India, the consultation papers and circulars published in 2026. · sebi.gov.in · consultations and circulars