Pvt players crucial in making policies for road sector: Govt

Private players, armed with best global practices and data bank, can play a major role in helping government make policies for the country's road sector, Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber said today.
Speaking at a panel discussion on 'What is the role that the bureaucracy expects from public affairs professionals', Chibber said there is a need to address the basic issues in the system.
"Knowledge base with government is far more inadequate vis-a-vis the private sector...What has changed the process is that as the economy gradually shifts away from public controlled economy to a private economy...
"Data acquisition is still a major constraint and acquiring not only data but also best global solutions and best practices," he said at the Public Affairs Forum event.

He said private sector can play a crucial role in it, as unlike the government, which had a larger canvas focusing at 300 million people below the poverty line, input from the industry, is far more segmented and focused.
"There would be a dependence on the private sector," he said, adding, the government is hugely dependent on consultants in the road sector.

"We don't treat them as lobbyist. Actually they are the change agents in terms of technology, in terms of better designing capacities, in terms of what is happening in the rest of the world.
"In fact some of the consultants we have are the best in the world in terms of the knowledge base. There is a very very close interface between us, the consultants and the actual builders in the road sector," he said.

Chhibber said in the road sector there is a really corroborative approach.
He, however, added that while on the road construction side the Ministry has "lots of positive spin offs, on the transport side or the logistics side I find there is absolutely no change."
Citing the proposed transporters strike, he said when he asked the transporters what was the basic issue, they said they were ready to pay toll but were not ready to stop at toll plazas as every intermediary had a designated check point to extract money.
The major issue for transporters is toll tax, he said.

"They said it is not the money We want to pay the money. We want to pay you the bonus of 20 per cent over what you think is the duty but don't expect us to stop at the toll plazas.
"They said the moment we go to toll plazas every intermediary whether it is ...The tax department, the mines department they have a designated check point in which to extract money ...I find the basic points in the system remain the same. This needs to be changed," he said.