PM for Rs 1.15 lakh crore investment in PPP projects in six months - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: In a bid to perk up the log-jammed infrastructure sector, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has set a target of awarding projects worth Rs 1.15 lakh crore in the public-private partnership model over the next six months. These include the Rs 30,000-crore Mumbai Elevated Rail Corridor, power and transmission projects worth 40,000 crore, two new airports worth Rs 20,000 crore, and a Rs 10,000-crore port project in either Andhra Pradesh or West Bengal. Singh set the targets at a review meeting with the six core ministries-coal, power, railways, roads, shipping and civil aviation-on Friday. Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia were also present at the meeting. "A lot of work still needs to be done and there should be no slackening of the pace of work," Singh said, highlighting the need to ramp up investment in infrastructure to revive investor sentiment. The prime minister has set up a steering group to monitor the award and implementation of infrastructure projects to be bid out on a fast-track basis this year. In the rail sector, the government is looking to expedite two locomotive factories worth Rs 5,000 crore and accelerate work on the eastern dedicated freight corridor being built with Japanese assistance. The PM has also formed an inter-ministerial group with the finance, planning and railways ministries to come up with a creative mechanism to Finance and implement the large backlog of projects worth over Rs 200,000 crore in a time-bound manner. He also reiterated the government's commitment to creating a Rail Tariff Authority to depoliticise railway fares. To shore up the aviation sector, Singh has set a target of setting up new international airports at Bhubaneswar and Imphal and 50 new low-cost small airports to be built by the Airports Authority of India. He has also asked the aviation ministry to award eight greenfield projects in this fiscal year, including several airports that were also part of last year's targets, such as Navi Mumbai, Goa and Kannur. A statement issued by the prime minister's office said that "the slowdown in the award of road projects should get reversed in view of the large number of relaxations that have already been provided to PPP projects," conceding that the sector has been beset by a flurry of issues that led to just 10% of the government's highway targets being met in 2012-13. "Expressways will get focused attention," the statement added. On the energy front, the statement said that the power ministry is working on a separate provision to operationalise open access while new policies will be put in place to ramp up coal production. Copyright © 2013 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEzKUEh8iGQoNmSDToDXOYvK1YpHw&url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/infrastructure/pm-for-rs-1-15-lakh-crore-investment-in-ppp-projects-in-six-months/articleshow/20817598.cms

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