Banks and financial institutions should look to cut down the time taken for conducting technical feasibility study and doing the due diligence for infrastructure projects by adopting digital technology. . This would ensure smooth implementation of the large pipeline of infrastructure projects which the country needs to push ahead with economic growth.

According to Bhushan Kumar, Joint Secretary, Sagarmala & PPP, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, it typically takes two to- three years for any project to start implementation as it takes time to conduct the technical feasibility study, DPR and due diligence.

Latest digital technologies

“If we have to implement such a large pipeline of infrastructure projects, we need to cut down on the time taken for preparing the technical feasibility study, DPR and due diligence by bankers. I think we can make use of the latest digital technologies to have the data authenticated. Some digital technologies can be innovated to cut down and standardise a couple of things because these things typically take two to three years’ time before the implementation starts,” Kumar said at the India Infrastructure e-conclave organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Friday.

Kumar also highlighted the need for focusing on funding the floating infrastructure, which he feels, has been neglected so far.

“When we talk about infrastructure funding initiatives, we mainly talk about the hard infrastructure and floating infrastructure is not getting attention from bankers, financiers as well as infrastructure players. That is a grey area if we can work around this, there is a big opportunity,” he said.

Need to address logistics inefficiencies

The logistics cost of India, which accounts for nearly 14-15 per cent of the country’s GDP, is much higher than the global average, which is anywhere between 7-8 per cent. This is primarily because of certain inefficiencies in operations, he said.

“In percentage terms, it may seem a small number, but if you convert, it comes to close to ₹10-11 lakh crore which goes waste just due to logistics inefficiencies. The government, private sector and all other stakeholders should work together to improve on that,” he pointed out.

comment COMMENT NOW