Bengal wants private funds for roads

The West Bengal government plans to replicate the joint venture model in housing sector to develop other infrastructure like roads, water supply and sewerage.

Asok Bhattacharya, West Bengal's minister for urban development, said the government would encourage private players in these areas.

He said such projects were yet to take off as private investors were sceptical about return on investments.

"The state will give some road projects on built-operate-transfer on BOT basis but as of now the second Vivekananda bridge over the Ganges is the only BOT infrastructure project in West Bengal," he said.

The bridge is a central government project contract awarded by the Vajpayee government.

Speaking at the inauguration of the City Centre residential complex in Salt Lake, Kolkata, Bhattacharya said West Bengal could offer development of the Kalyani-Barrackpore expressway and the Baruipur expressway on BOT contracts even if tenders have been issued on other basis already.

Some water supply and distribution projects, Bhattacharya said, could be offered in the industrial town of Haldia.

Private investors have stayed away so long as they were not confident of the revenue model, the minister complained.

The state government will permit user charges to attract investors.

"The state hopes investors will make a small profit and consider the social aspect," he said.

Harshavardhan Neotia who has pioneered joint sector housing projects in the state said his group could be interested in road projects.

"The structuring of any project decides viability. We have to evaluate case to case basis," he said.

To make the second Vivekananda bridge viable, the state will divert commercial vehicle within a certain catchment zone to the new bridge while the existing bridge there will carry trains and private vehicles.