Public-private partnership: The Swiss Challenge conundrum

The Swiss Challenge method: Any qualified entity can submit a project proposal to the government

At a time when the Union government had to reinvent its highway contracts to get public-private partnership (PPP) come out of slumber, states are increasingly adopting the Swiss Challenge mode for auctioning infrastructure projects. Andhra Pradesh adopted this model for building its capital city of Amravati, while other states like Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat have taken it up for projects in road and housing sectors on a smaller scale.

Though the Supreme Court approved this method for the award of contracts in 2009, it was still open to legal challenge and, therefore, states like Andhra Pradesh,