The move is expected to reduce litigation from those left out, expediting projects. Besides, more bidders may get better financial offers for the government

The Indian government has removed the cap on the number of players who can participate in financial bidding for port-expansion projects under public private partnership (PPP) to minimise litigation and get better returns, reports PTI.

Until now, the government allowed only five technically-qualified players to participate in financial bidding, which led to litigation and slowed down projects, a shipping ministry official said.

"The government has now done away with the cap. The move is expected to reduce litigation from those left out, expediting projects. Besides, more bidders may get better financial offers for the government," the official said.

"Now, all technically-qualified players will be allowed to make financial bids," he added.

The shipping ministry's decision follows a similar move last year by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to remove the limit on the number of private players who could bid for PPP road projects.

The official said that the government will award six port projects by March-end, in addition to the seven that have been already given out so far this fiscal.

"Besides, the government will invite RFPs (request for proposals) for eight more PPP projects by March end," the official said.

The government has planned to undertake 276 capacity expansion projects at various ports across the country, entailing investments of around Rs55,000 crore under the National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP).

Under the NMDP, the total capacity of the 12 major ports in the country is envisaged to go up to 1,016 million tonnes (MT) by 2011-12 from 570MT at present. Besides the major ports, India has around 200 minor ports.