KARACHI: Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) has failed to enter into marine services business after the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) rejected its proposal for chartering of two tugs for the port, informed sources told Dawn on Friday.

According to official sources, KPT in August last year invited bids for chartering of two berthing tugs of 75 tonnes Bullard Pull on a hiring basis from national and international firms with a charter period of three years.

The KPT invited two separate proposals related to technical and financial aspects of bidding companies in chartering of two tugs badly needed by the Karachi Port which has an ageing flotilla of five tugs to handle around 20 ships per day.

As per KPT terms and conditions, only those bidding firms will be entertained who would first technically qualify. This means that the financial proposals of only those participants will be accepted who have already been declared technically qualified by the KPT, official sources said.

However, in the case of PNSC — which for the first time in its history tried to venture into marine services — the bid was rejected by the KPT at the very first stage of technical evaluation.

Official sources said the KPT recently informed PNSC about being technically rejected by its Technical Evaluation Committee.

The KPT felt that PNSC’s technical proposal was not as per technical specification and evaluation criteria laid down in the bid documents of the port.

Meanwhile, insiders told Dawn that the PNSC plans to contest the issue as it strongly believes that it has fulfilled all the conditions laid down by the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).

These sources further said the KPT invited bids under Clause 36(b) of PPRA-2204 (amended) for the provision of two berthing tugs on hiring basis/chartering, therefore, PNSC fully met these conditions.

However, delay in acquiring tugs would badly hurt KPT which is already short of tugs.

Currently there are only five tugs to handle around 20 ships per day.

Although all the five tugs are operational but many a time one or two tugs are under maintenance.

KPT sources said that currently one tug is under repair two tugs are of less than 10 years of age, while three tugs are between 20 to 35 years old.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018