BANGALORE: A final decision on allowing Chinese firms to invest in India's booming infrastructure sectors such as telecommunications and ports will be taken shortly, M. K. Narayanan, National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister, said.

The world's largest container port operator Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) and Huawei Telecommunications are eagerly awaiting security clearance from the Government to bid for container terminal projects in Mumbai and Chennai ports as well as the GSM tender floated by state-owned BSNL, respectively.

"The issue of granting security clearance to Chinese companies was recently referred to us by the Cabinet Committee on Security. We are in the process of preparing documents, which would be discussed at a meeting to be convened shortly, and a decision would be taken soon,'' Mr. Narayanan told The Hindu during an official visit to here on Monday. Hutchison, owned by Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, has been trying in vain to grab a slice of India's booming container trade by developing a port terminal to handle boxes. But, its attempts so far have been thwarted by the Government's fears over its alleged links with mainland Chinese authorities.

Now, Hutchison, in partnership with domestic engineering and construction giant L&T, is one of the 11 companies in the fray for the Rs. 1,200-crore off-shore container terminal project at Mumbai Port.

In the absence of a security clearance for HPH, the Mumbai Port authorities have been compelled to extend the deadline for submission of financial bids by seven times in the past six months. The Mumbai Port Trust has sought security clearance for all the bidders who are seeking to build and operate the container terminal because of the close proximity of the proposed terminal to the naval base in Mumbai.

The Hutchison-L&T team has also submitted a financial bid for developing a new container terminal at Chennai port with an investment of around Rs. 750 crore. Though, the financial bids were submitted in November last year, the Chennai Port Trust is awaiting security clearance from the Centre before opening the bids.

Huawei has sought permission from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to hike stake in its Delhi-based marketing company to fund a manufacturing facility proposed to be set up in Bangalore. In an effort to boost local manufacturing, BSNL has made it mandatory for prospective bidders to set up a local unit either on their own or through contract manufacturers having a base in India.

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