Speeding up infra projects. Kamal Nath was not joking.

Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest news and business opportunities in your inbox
Speeding up infra projects. Kamal Nath was not joking. Hi! This week was quite exciting in the PPP industry in India. Many news came out and big advances are being studied for the bids of all the new highways projects. There is a clae goal: bringing out 200 projects this fscal year. Kamal Nath, the roads ministry is decided to make it true and is pushing his officials to speed up the bidding processes. In order to get this:Government may award road projects to single bidderGovernment might start awarding projects even if there is a single bidder for highway development on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. Sources in the ministry of road, transport and highways (North) said the modalities for this are yet to be worked out, which can fast-track project allocation as the ministry has set ambitious target of bidding 200 projects this fiscal year.In 2008-09, while the highway regulator, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), could award only 8 of the 60 projects floated, majority of the projects did not receive any bids.And:New highway bidding scheme to save timeUnder a new policy, all road highway projects are to be earmarked from the beginning to one of three processes of bidding, on the basis of its financial viability. This pre-selection is estimated to save up to 18 months of time.Earlier, every project was first put under the build operate and transfer (BOT) toll bidding process. If there was no positive response, it was put under the BOT annuity bidding process, where the contractor is paid every six months and the toll is collected by the government. A third option was an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract.Under the new plan, all projects are divided into three categories - BOT-toll, BOT-annuity or EPC - even before the bidding process starts. "Preparing the project up for bid on a new scheme consumes six months every time. And if it is pre-decided, we will save those 18 months," said a senior official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).And if financing the projects turns out to be difficult, something really likely to happen having in mind the current financial crisis, the following may help a bit:World Bank approves $4.3-bn loan to IndiaThe World Bank today approved four loans worth $4.3 billion (about Rs 20,631 crore) to help India finance its infrastructure programmes and further strengthen the capital base of state-run banks. The approved loan includes a a budgetary support of $2 billion for capital infusion in select public sector banks to help them maintain credit growth.These 3 news are pretty interesting, I hope you guys enjoy the readings an keep coming over and over to this blog because it is going to be the best site to keep you update with the last PPP news in India.

Share this news

Join us

In order to get full access to News section, you must have a full subscription. You can check all the benefits of becoming a member and purchase a subscription on our membership page.