The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Infrastructure policy approved

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Thursday, Jul 05, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Infrastructure policy approved

Special Correspondent

It is on lines of a ‘Swiss model’
It will help take over pending projects

BANGALORE: The State Cabinet, which met here on Wednesday, has cleared a new Infrastructure Policy, which, among other things, is expected to enable the Government to take over pending projects and hand them over to other bidders.

Minister for Home and Law and Parliamentary Affairs M.P. Prakash told presspersons that the Government would not like to spell out details on the discussions at the Cabinet meeting owing to the Legislature session scheduled from Thursday.

He said that if the Transparency Act were to come in the way of the policy then the Government would bring in amendments to the Act. The policy would be on the lines of what is described as the “Swiss model” wherein the completion of a particular project would be mandatory failing which the Government could take over that project from the contractor and ask the next bidder to complete it.

It was evident that the policy has been brought forth to possibly take over the long pending Bangalore-Mysore Expressway Project being executed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise. Refusing to answer a question on this, the Government has, however, said that the policy has been brought about to take advantage of several of the Central schemes relating to infrastructure development. The schemes and projects of several departments, including the Industries and Commerce and Public Works, would come under the purview of the policy.

What it says

The policy proposes to provide and facilitate an increasing role for public-private partnership — both in creating new infrastructure and in managing the existing assets.

To achieve a high average growth rate in the coming years across all sectors, the Government has said, is possible if the private sector plays a substantial role in infrastructure development and ensures “significant investments in projects in transportation (for airports, ports, railways and roads), tourism, power generation, urban infrastructure.”

The policy states that promotion of public-private partnership would lead to timely execution of projects and higher efficiency in operations, among other benefits.

Public-private partnership would be considered both in new infrastructure projects and in managing existing infrastructure projects.

Yet another important decision of the Cabinet related to granting approval for a Special Purpose Vehicle to do the groundwork for three major power projects in Gulbarga, Mysore and Belgaum.

Each of these would generate 1,000 megawatts of power and the new company would comprise senior officials of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited and the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited apart from others.

The proposal for the Special Purpose Vehicle was mooted by the two government corporations to hasten the pace of construction of new power projects.

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