Feedback Ventures on Lankan mission

The Indian model of public-private partnerships, especially the success achieved in the roads sector, seems to have impressed Sri Lanka.

One of the country's leading infrastructure companies, Feedback Ventures has been roped in by the Sri Lankan government to devise methods of introducing public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the roads sector there.

Feedback has been asked to suggest structural reforms to develop the country's Road Development Organisation on the lines of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

In the last decade, NHAI has emerged as an aggressive road builder in India having undertaken seven phases of the National Highway Development Programme. The total cost of these projects is more than Rs 2 lakh crore and work is expected to continue up to 2012.

The Sri Lankan consultancy contract which is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was signed between Feedback Ventures and the Sri Lankan government after the company won the contract last year.

According to Akhileshwar Sahay, president, transportation wing of the Infrastructure Advisory Division of Feedback Ventures, Sri Lanka has 11,000 kilometers of highways and a road density of 1.4 km of roads per sq km.

Sahay says that many of Sri Lanka's new roads have been built in the last few years, mostly with ADB and multilateral funding. Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects and PPPs are almost non-existent, he adds.

"The average speed on the highways is only 30 km an hour. The highways in Sri Lanka need to be widened and maintained properly and some of the important ones have to be converted into expressways," Sahay said in an e-mail response to Business Standard.

Under the technical assistance agreement, Feedback Ventures has to suggest optimum use of public and private funding in the road sector. The consulting company also has to prepare a model concession agreement for undertaking BOT projects in Sri Lanka.