rate of return of 17% was agreed upon. The termination clause in the concession agreement comes into effect after 30 years into the concession period. The MMRDA can invoke the clause based on certain conditions such as the capacity being higher than expected. The conditions will be reviewed in the 20th year of the concession agreement. The DEA is the first tier of the three-tier clearance process to get viability gap funding (VGF) for the project. The project must also receive approval from an Empowered Committee and finally from the Finance Minister. On 9 November 2012, the State Government issued a state-support agreement and a toll notification for the project. The empowered committee approved VGF for MTHL on 12 December 2012. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram cleared the project on 18 January 2013. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) asked the MMRDA to build the MTHL at a height of 51 metres, instead of the proposed 25 metres, for a span of 300 metres to accommodate its expansion plans for its fifth container terminal and to allow safe passage of bigger vessels. MMRDA expressed that a height of 51 metres would not be feasible as it would have a huge impact on the cost. However, MMRDA officials expressed willingness to raise the height of the bridge to 31–35 metres. On 8 January 2012, Minister of State for Shipping and MP from South Mumbai, Milind Deora told reporters that JNPT would issue a No Objection Certificate to the State Government to go ahead with the project. In May 2012, the MMRDA shortlisted five consortia for the project: Cintra-SOMA-Srei, Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd.-OHL, Concessions-G.S. Engineering, GMR Infrastructure-L&T Ltd.-Samsung C&T Corpn., IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd.-Hyundai, and Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd.-Autostrade Indian Infrastructure Development Pvt. Ltd.-Vinci Concessions Development V Pte Ltd. None of the five shortlisted firms bid for the project by the deadline, which was extended 5 August. IRB-Hyundai had announced their withdrawal from the bidding process, on 31 July 2013, citing "the government's apathy and unfriendly attitude towards investors wanting to develop capital-intensive infra projects". Following the failure of the tender, the MMRDA decided to abandon the PPP model and instead implement the project on cash contract basis. In January 2013, the Central Government had sanctioned , which was 20% of the project cost at the time, in viability gap for the MTHL. Under the public private partnership (PPP) basis that the