Title - ‘Public-private partnership in infrastructure holds key to growth’

“If there were to be a single mantra to push up India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, it would be higher and successful public-private partnership (PPP) in infrastructure,” said H.A.C. Prasad, Senior Economic Advisor, the Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi.He was delivering the keynote address at a national conference on PPPs with a special reference to infrastructure development, industrialisation and tourism, organised by SDM Post Graduate Centre for Management Studies and Research here on Monday.There was a need for the PPP model because when the government rendered most infrastructure services there was no commercial approach towards cost recovery and because PPP was encouraged as it filled the infrastructure gap since the government had limited resources at its disposal. The Eleventh Plan followed the strategy, which showed results in Centre and the State. As per 12th Plan documents, private and PPP investments were estimated to have accounted for 30 per cent of the total investment in infrastructure in the 11th Plan. Their share may have to rise to 50 per cent. Total investment in infrastructure was estimated to be more than Rs. 45 lakh crore from the public sector but this had to be complemented with a proportional rise in private investment. To meet increasing demand, large investments would be needed in roads, railways, ports and civil aviation sectors to augment capacity and modernisation, he said.

Mr. Prasad said that strong political will and advances in public capacity and processes had driven PPP development in India.

However, lingering problems with cohesiveness of regulations and Centre-State interaction needed to be addressed.

After inaugurating the meet, Yogish Bhat, MLA, Mangalore, said that a Singapore-based company was interested in building an international golf course near Tannir Bhavi beach. A marine aquarium at a cost of Rs. 250 crore would be built on the same beach, and a skywalk would be built between Sultan Battery and Tannir Bhavi, he said.

H.A.C. Prasad, Senior Economic Advisor, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi, provided an update on roads, railways, and ships. He said that from April to September 2012, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) widened or upgraded 958 km of highways, which was 28.5 per cent lower than the targeted 1,339 km for the period but 38.8 per cent higher than what was achieved during the same period in 2011.

While the government set a target of 20 km a day in 2012 for the construction of national highways, the pace of construction fell from 13.72 km a day in 2009-10 to 10.15 km in 2011-12.

From April to September 2012, railways carried 481.45 tonnes of goods traffic, which was 1.6 per cent lower than the target of 489.44 tonnes for the period, but was 4.8 per cent higher than what was achieved during the corresponding period of the previous year. From April to September 2012, the major ports handled 270.56 tonnes of cargo, which was 3.3 per cent lower than what was achieved during the corresponding period of the previous year. — Special Correspondent