The Hindu Business Line : ‘Public-private partnership needs to be long-term to succeed’

“There cannot be any single model for PPP. The model will vary from one country to another depending on the local legal system and local conditions”.

Our Bureau

Kolkata, April 17

Mr Nick Raynsford, MP, and a former British Minister, has said that for the public private partnership (PPP) model to succeed in infrastructure projects, adequate care should be taken by the Government right at the negotiation stage.

“The negotiation must proceed on the right track for partnership to be real”, Mr Raynsford observed while talking to Business Line here on Thursday, “otherwise, the private partner will walk away leaving the Government high and dry”.

He felt that the partnership has to be long-term, covering the entire concession period of the project.

On partnership

Also, the partners must know how to plan ahead.

He cited the example of Croydon tram link in London to point out how an otherwise good PPP project ran into difficulties because of the introduction of integrated ticketing system which was not foreseen at the time of planning the project. Mr Raynsford, however, made it clear that there could not be any single model for PPP.

“The model will vary from one country to another depending on the local legal system and local conditions”, he said.

“But the critical issue is how to incentivise the private partner to deliver and maintain high quality assets over the lifeline of the project”, he added.

Mr Raynsford, who is heading a high-level delegation from Britain on infrastructure, housing and construction, expressed the view that transport played a very important role.

Citing the London example, he explained how the new transport infrastructure helped stimulate the economy, particularly the development of commercial complexes.

In a country such as India, dealing with movement of people from one place to another, particularly from rural to urban areas, through fast and economic means were pre-requisite for growth.

He sounded bullish about Indian market which was large and having huge potential and the country has succeeded in positioning itself well.

But the problem, as he felt, was that the country’s infrastructure sector needed huge investment and there was a huge backlog.

“But then it is not an insurmountable problem”, he observed.

In any infrastructure project, the social and employment aspects should also receive due attention along with the development of physical infrastructure, he added.

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