iDeCK to invest Rs 30 cr in infrastructure projects

The Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Limited (iDeCK), a 49 : 49.5 : 1.5 per cent joint venture between the government of Karnataka, Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) and HDFC is looking to invest Rs 30 crore in healthcare and industrial infrastructure projects.

The company provides assistance to various government and multilateral agencies in various states and to corporates for the development of infrastructure policies and projects. iDeCK is empanelled along with IDFC for providing transaction advisory services to various agencies like the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and ministry of finance, government of India.

The company has two funds under its fold, the Project Development Fund (PDF) and Project Investment Fund (PIF) and it makes small investments in infrastructure projects through PIF, P V Ravi, managing director, iDeCK, said.

“Our board has approved a corpus of Rs 200 crore to invest in infrastructure projects. However, we have an investable fund of only Rs 40 crore of which we plan to invest Rs 30 crore this year,” he told reporters, here on Monday.

He said, the company had earlier invested Rs 15 crore in the Tumkur-Nelamangala highway project and Rs 20 crore in the Narayanapur Power Company Ltd and has recently been paid back in both of them.

“The main objective of iDeCK is not to take debt or equity exposure in infrastructure projects. We are only interested in carrying out consultancy work and carry out detailed project reports among other work. However, we plan to make small investments in infrastructure projects in Karnataka,” Ravi said.

Presently, iDeCK is preparing the draft Infrastructure Act of the Karnataka government. It had earlier drafted the infrastructure policy of the state government, Ravi said.

Some of the projects handled by iDeCK include Karnataka Urban Water Sector Improvement Project (KUWASIP) in north Karnataka which was funded by the World Bank, development of special economic zones in Karnataka, Kolhapur in Maharashtra, and collection and transportation of municipal solid waste in select zones of municipal corporation of Delhi and NDMC among others.