Call for Govt, PPP, investors and banks join forces.

Public private partnership (PPP) is the need of the hour given the budgetary constraints of the government, said Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping.

It was imperative that the stakeholders including the government, private sector, investors and banks work in tandem and weed out the obstacles, and create a Model Concession Agreement (MCA), he said.

The MCA must account for all the risks, issues and spells out a framework for effective implementation of a PPP, said Gadkari at the fifth India PPP Summit on 26 July 2017.

ighlighting the priority for public transport, he said the government was focused on transport running on biofuel and electricity as it would be environment friendly and cost effective.

Gadkari announced that work has begun on developing inland waterways in Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers.

The creation of waterways would bring down logistics cost drastically and reduce the time of transportation of goods, he said at the summit by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in association with the International Chamber of Commerce in India.

Port and rail connectivity work was also being undertaken.

Gadkari launched FICCI-Ernst Young study ‘Revival of PPP momentum in the transport sector’ at the summit.

Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog, has also stressed on the need to bid out PPP projects only after all requisite approvals such land acquisition and environment clearances are placed in SPV to develop world-class infrastructure.

He urged the private sector to bid on a project only after due diligence with a rational approach.

Besides, he suggested that across sectors operation and maintenance work should be with the private sector, which should be awarded to them through a transparent and competitive bidding process.

Kant called for reworking of MCA for effective implementation of PPP and disputes needed to be resolved at a faster pace.

Besides, new areas of PPP such as social sectors should be explored.

Junaid Kamal Ahmad, India Country Director, South Asia, The World Bank, has called for incentives for the states to manage PPPs and corporatize agencies that could be held accountable by the capital market.

He underlined the World Bank’s priority was to engage with the government, private sector and civil society.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog is currently in the process of preparing a list of 10 big infrastructure projects across sectors that can be developed under the PPP mode, according to K. Ramchand, Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Infrastructure, Managing Director, IL&FS Transportation Networks Limited.

NITI is also working on the flexible structuring of PPP projects.

He added that new measures such as the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model and improved land acquisition process among other initiatives will drive the required private sector participation. fii-news.com