Sabyasachi Sen, Principal Secretary of the state's Commerce and Industries Department, said today that the state's proposal to invite direct bids from the prospective developers for the deep-sea port, had been accepted by the Centre.

Sen was talking to reporters at the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation office.

Earlier, the Union ministry of shipping had invited bids from global consultants for the port project, but no bids were received as consultants demanded a change in terms of reference. The entire process led to a delay of two to three years.

"With the PMO's approval for the proposal, we are going to save at least two years, which would have been wasted in going through the same process again. We are now going to prepare the bid document and invite expressions of interest in a month's time," said Sen.

Several corporate houses like Videocon, the Jindals, and the New Kolkata International Development Pvt Ltd (NKID) promoted by Indonesia-based Salim Group, which has other business interests in the state, have evinced interest in developing the port.

The state government, however, has received no formal expressions of interest so far.

With respect to the Rs 5000-crore modernisation plans for the Kolkata airport, the proposal had been stuck with the Planning Commission, which had reserved its views.

But on Wednesday, the state administration was told that the Planning Commission had finally cleared the project.