Infrastructure services company Feedback Ventures president Akhileshwar Sahay called for framing new rules for fast tracking public private partnerships (PPP) as the contracts now "are based on archaic rules framed in 1872".
Speaking on the concluding day of Suminfra 2008 here on Saturday, he pointed out that about 50 per cent of the infrastructure projects taken up during 1998 and 2004 have been heavily negotiated or terminated due to faulty revenue and execution models.
Though states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and others have created separate ministries for overseeing the investments, the situation in the rest of the country is far from being satisfactory, he said stressing the need for a national policy for promoting PPP.
According to Sahay, PPP is a Rs 60,00,00 crore opportunity in India in the coming few years.
A Venkateshwar, vice president (corporate affairs), Tata Projects Limited, said dedicated freight corridors (DFC) will spur industrial growth. Making a case study of the proposed eastern and western corridors- from Ludhiana to Sone Nagar and Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in the southern Mumbai respectively, he said the DFCs will reduce the unit costs of transportation. The freight traffic can be off-loaded to the 2,762 km corridors to accommodate more passengers, he said.
The DFC will allow two-deck containers and time-tabled high speed freight trains capable of doing 100 kmph. The axle load can also be increased to 32.5 tonne from the present 22 tonne. The DFC will have 1,500 m long loop lines from the present 750 m. The corridors will have road-over-bridges and road-under-bridges to avoid traffic snarls. Each of these wings present a PPP opportunity.
Both the corridors, being implemented by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited at an cost of Rs 28,100 crore, will have a lot of feeder and extension routes for connectivity. Several logistic parks will also dot the corridors and the project is expected to benefit about 17 crore population on each side of the corridor, he said adding that the government should derisk the project for the investor by doing the land acquisition. Also, the risk should be mitigated through indexation of user charges to inflation.
According to Debasis Mohanty, principal-infrastructure, ICICI Venture Limited, said the DCF is a viable project but the government should classify the massive project into smaller parts for arranging funds. Stressing that infrastructure is a key area, he said ICICI was creating a dedicated infrastructure private equity fund of $ 1 to 2 billion (Rs 4000-8,000 crore).