Govt to soon clear PPP projects in infrastructure

The Government today said it would expeditiously clear pending proposals in the infrastructure sector under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode while making regulations, governing this area, investment friendly.     

Addressing the joint session of Parliament after constitution of the 15th Lok Sabha, President Pratibha Patil said: "A large number of PPP projects in different areas currently awaiting government approval would be cleared expeditiously."     

The speech, which broadly outlined the policies and programmes of the government for the next five years, also mentioned that the regulatory and legal framework for PPP projects would be made more investment friendly.     

Patil said bottlenecks and delays in implementation of infrastructure projects because of policies and procedures, especially in railways, power, highways, ports, airports and rural telecom, will be systematically removed. She added PPP projects are a key element of the strategy.     

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) failed last year to attract bidders for most of its 60 highways projects worth Rs 70,000 crore under PPP in various phases of National Highways Development Project.

Investment proposals worth Rs 11 lakh crore are awaiting government clearances in the steel sector for capacity addition.     

As far as the ports sector is concerned, only six berths of a target for awarding 52 berths between 2006 and 2011 could be awarded so far. These new berths at 12 state-owned major ports are to be constructed through the PPP mode.     

The railways sector offers an investment opportunity of a whopping Rs 2.7 lakh crore over the next five to eight years, of which Rs 80,000-90,000 crore will be awarded in the next two years, global financial services provider BNP Paribas said in a report.     

The report said of the entire outlay, Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, which envisages construction of 2,800 kms of rail corridor spanning seven states, poses the largest investment opportunity of Rs 68,000 crore.     

It says there is a great thrust on PPP model for implementation of the proposed programmes, and this form of partnership is expected to contribute 17 per cent of the estimated investments required.     

The cooperation between the public and private sectors could be in various forms such as special purpose vehicles, joint ventures, build-own-transfer (including the annuity model), build-own-operate-transfer and build-own-operate models.

The interim Railway Budget for 2009-10, announced in the earlier term of the UPA government, has earmarked Rs 37,900 crore as compared to Rs 36,773 crore for 2008-09 revised estimates.     

The President also said public investment in infrastructure is of paramount importance for the government and the sector's development would be a key focus area for the next five years.     

The government's focus would continue to be on the north-east region and Jammu and Kashmir to increase connectivity from other parts of the country.