The ministry of ports, shipping and waterways has come out with detailed guidelines to deal with stressed public-private-partnership (PPP) projects at major ports, a move which it expects to unlock 27 million tonne per annum cargo-handling capacity. “In case of the projects which became stressed during construction stage i.e., pre-COD stage, the concessioning authority (major port) would pay to the concessionaire or to the lenders of the concessionaire, as full and final settlement for taking over the useful assets created by the concessionaire,” said an official statement.
The settlement amount would be equal to the lower of the value of the work done by the concessionaire in accordance with the concession agreement and found useful by the major port or 90% of debt due as defined in the concession agreement. In projects where the work has stopped due to inability of concessionaire to continue with the execution of the project and the borrowings of the concessionaire having been categorised by lenders as non-performing assets or proceedings initiated, the due process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 or under the Companies Act 2013 will be followed. “These guidelines will facilitate for early resolution of various issues and revival of stressed projects along with unlocking the immense potential of those projects resulting in creation of more trade and job opportunities,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, minister for ports, shipping and waterways.
The ministry said the aim of the guidelines is to facilitate revival of the projects falling in the category of stressed projects. These guidelines will pave the way for resolution of the cases under arbitration. The port asset is likely to be put to use through re-bidding. “This will definitely result in unlocking the blocked cargo handling capacity of approximately 27 MTPA thereby creating better trade opportunities for the prospective investors and port authority will start generating revenue. It will repose confidence in the investors or concessionaires and also generate employment opportunities,” the statement said.
