With infrastructure development at crossroads in the State, a roadmap for sustainable infrastructure development in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode has been formulated to overcome challenges in projects developed with private investment.
The roadmap has been formulated in the backdrop of the D. Narayana committee report which states that “the lack of clarity in the concept of PPP is a serious concern” and that lack of proper interpretation of PPP was affecting structuring, financing and implementation of the projects.
Setting up of a committee has been suggested to formulate an approach paper defining the PPP. A PPP Cell in the Finance Department for faster and efficient decision making is part of the roadmap. The roadmap also suggests enacting of a legislation on infrastructure development, which should be followed with rules, regulations and procurement framework for PPP projects. The PPP procurement should be different from current procurement guidelines.
Infra board
A ‘Kerala Infrastructure Development Board’ with the Chief Minister as chairman has been suggested to lead infrastructure development initiatives. The board should coordinate with all departments and existing multiple agencies.
The vision should outline long-term investment and financing plans, identify possible revenue sources as well as the extent of financing that can be enabled bringing the gaps in financing.
The government has been asked to come up with the model documentation. The documents created by the erstwhile Planning Commission can be used as the base, but has to be made flexible to accommodate the ground rules of Kerala and the Infrastructure/PPP Act.
PPP Cells in all major departments, capacity building, in-house consultants to do the project appraisals, interaction with stakeholders and other government entities have been suggested.
An alternative
C. Prathapmohan Nair, Consultant Advisor for ADB and World Bank in South Asia, who had worked out the roadmap, says the availability of quality infrastructure is crucial to attaining sustainable growth of the economy of the State.
“PPP is an alternative approach to speed up infrastructure development and it is not a panacea.” The intent is not just finances by private sector but efficiency in developing and managing projects, he added.
