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M.R. Subramani

The tender, floated on a two-bid system, provides for setting up of the storages under the build, own and operate (BOO) scheme. FCI seeks to have these storages, with capacities ranging between 10,000 and 50,000 tonnes, across 13 States.

CHENNAI, March 19

THE Government's efforts to privatise foodgrain storage handling have gathered pace with a tender being floated now for setting up conventional godowns to store the grains procured from the farmers.

The tender was floated by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency for the Government's procurement programme, to set up over 70 conventional godowns.

The tender, floated on a two-bid system, provides for setting up of the storages under the build, own and operate (BOO) scheme. FCI seeks to have these storages, with capacities ranging between 10,000 and 50,000 tonnes, across 13 States in the country, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The tender, floated a few days ago, has been split as technical and financial bids. The technical bid closes on May 6. It is imperative for bidders to qualify in the technical bid before their financial bid is opened. The technical bid will assess the bidders' competency and financial viability, besides their land holdings.

According to FCI sources, the Government is looking for financially sound parties to set up these storages. "It is a long- term project and parties bidding for the tender will have to have the wherewithal to invest heavily," they said.

"We want to set up these storages at very convenient points. These should be within 20 km from the railway junctions of the identified places," they said. "This is different from the steel silos for which we floated a tender earlier this year."

According to the sources, private sector units setting up the storage would be paid a specified amount per tonne for storing the foodgrains. In turn, they would be required to store foodgrains and their preservation and quality control would be as per FCI guidelines. The parties will have to despatch stocks as per requirements and they would be required to take a comprehensive insurance besides paying security deposit towards the stocks held by them.

The tender has not specified any sops such as tax holiday or deduction of profits.

This tender follows FCI invitation of expression of interest from private parties for being shortlisted for bulk foodgrain handling, storage and transport. The deadline for submitting the expression of interest has been extended to March 31 from February 18 as the bidders sought clarification on a host of issues such as guarantee from FCI on capacity utilisation. The Government has identified nine locations for bulk grain handling and, of these, four will act as base depots with a capacity to handle three lakh tonnes of foodgrains each. The other five will be field depots with a capacity of one lakh tonnes each.

While the Government is keen on private sector participation in foodgrains storage, FCI will still be the nodal agency for procurement.

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