Big ticket projects in Odisha need real time monitoring by SPV: Study

To track the developmental progress of large scale projects and reaffirm state commitment to business

To ensure real time monitoring of big ticket projects, Odisha needs a special purpose vehicle (SPV) at the level of the state government to track the developmental progress of large scale projects and reaffirm Odisha's commitment to business, says a study report.

Apart from government officials, the report prepared by leading consultancy firm KPMG jointly with state owned Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol), says the SPV will consist of representatives of ECI (empowered committee of infrastructure) and representatives of departments involved in the infrastructure development with industry veterans as members for effective consultation.

The monitoring mechanism proposed is the first of its kind in Odisha, which has seen big ticket projects like Posco and ArcelorMittal battling huge delays on land acquisition. In fact, ArcelorMittal has already aborted its 12 million tonne mega steel project in Odisha, blaming inordinate delay in procuring land and law & order issues. Posco, the biggest FDI, said it had temporarily frozen its Odisha project, triggering enough speculation of a pull out.

Odisha has already an ECI responsible for facilitating infrastructure development under the PPP (public private partnership) route. The body has the authority to recommend to HLCA (high level clearance authority) for final approvals, to review, monitor and sanction projects.

"However, since the body (ECI) is conceived at very high level with a focus on overall development of the state, it cannot function as regular monitoring unit," the report added. Therefore KPMG has recommended for the formation of SPV for real time monitoring of large projects follow up with concerned authorities and assistance in de-bottlenecking.

The work of the SPV would include conceiving new infrastructure projects, developing guidelines for an effective review and appraisal of a project. It will also monitor every priority project on a regularly basis with a real time monitoring dashboard, ensure financial and physical monitoring of individual projects, track deviations and identify key areas of correction.

The report pointed out that several key infrastructure projects required for overall development of the state have not materialized and are stuck at various stages of approvals, financing and actual operations such as Paradip airport, conversion of Jharsuguda into full fledged airport, Gopalpur SEZ, National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) at Kalinganagar, development of Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR).

While some of these projects are under Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), others are under a project SPV.