New Delhi, May 25 : After putting in place policy measures on public-private partnerships (PPP) in infrastructure development, the government is now looking at replicating the act with regards to infrastructure projects.
The Centre is chalking out a delivery-based plan linked with specific milestones to get some key projects implemented over the next three years at the state-level. One of the measures is to ask states to adopt a legal or administrative procedure to ensure that infrastructure projects, post identification and clearance, are duly implemented even if there is a change in government.
Sources said that these would not necessarily be only with regard to big-ticket projects but would also pertain to smaller projects like tourism infrastructure, cold storage chains or municipal water supply projects. They pointed out the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme stressed that ??public investment in infrastructure will be enhanced, even as the role of the private sector is expanded’’.
At a meeting on May 20 to sensitise state governments on the government’s initiatives on PPPs, the Centre asked the chief secretaries to provide it feedback on what the Centre could do to kick off projects in states. Finance Minister P Chidambaram then wrote to all chief ministers on May 23 urging them to come forward and take all the help that the Centre could offer for PPP projects in infrastructure.
In his letter, Chidambaram said, ??PPP can succeed only if we can build capacities within public institutions and in public officials to not only provide a satisfactory framework but also initiate the partnerships in the initial stage of development.’’
The government has taken another crucial policy measure to encourage infrastructure project through viability gap funding. Under this, the Centre will sweeten projects by providing up to 40 per cent subsidy to make projects that are initially unviable. In addition, IIFCL, a special created investment company, would provide long-term finance to infrastructure projects.
The Finance Ministry is also in the process of creating a bank of key infrastructure projects in the states and would hold road shows in different countries for ??vendor development’’, inviting the big players to come forward and develop projects. The government has also decided that state governments should formulate a separate PPP plan with milestones that could be monitored to ensure time-bound implementation.
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