Public Private Partnership in Infrastructure

Since the beginning of the Five-Year Plan period, public sector has been solely responsible for providing basic infrastructure through government funding. However, post liberalisation the private sector has taken a lead into the infrastructure funding and the capital market now appears mature enough to enter into project financing. However, giving the externalities, high risk and low rate of return, private investors have been finding it difficult to finance capital intensive projects. At the same time, with the budget constraints, inherent inefficiency and regulatory mechanism, public sector has not been able to muster required resources as well. Therefore, Public Private Partnership has emerged as a viable option in infrastructure building. As a case study, author has given a narrative description of the journey attached to a successfully planned and managed PPP project, in which he served as the first Managing Director and demonstrated that with effective management such projects are not only completed in time with reduced cost, but also provide incentive to the promotion by way of reducing operating cost. The book is a hands-on narration of the experience that the author has in the execution of Kutch Railway, one of the earliest PPP rail projects on the Indian Railways. One of the first publications of its kind, the book will be of interest to the spectrum of readers from policy makers in the government to project financing companies, construction agencies, academic institutions etc.