(Repeating DC 5, deleting references to joint venture)

New Delhi, Mar 21 (UNI) Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) and Feedback Ventures today announced the launch of the India Infrastructure Initiative (III) to attract projects for Public Private Partnership (PPP).

The initiative aims to develop a stream of bankable infrastructure projects on behalf of government agencies by bringing together financial expertise, deep domain knowledge and public policy acumen of IDFC with the project creation skills of Feedback Ventures.

''Starting off with a corpus fund of Rs 10 crore, III will assist in reducing the gap the government faces in developing infrastructure projects through its finances and experienced resources in development and implementation of projects,'' IDFC chairman Deepak Parekh told reporters here.

''It was not shortage of funds, but the bankability of projects which came as a constraint in infrastructure development. III will fill this gap by making projects bankable,'' he added.

III will, in conjunction with and on behalf of the government, manage the process of selecting bidders transparently, by preparing the bid documents, attracting bidders and evaluating the bids. III's engagement will encompass the entire spectrum of infrastructure-core, urban, rural, social, commercial and industrial.

''Where required we will also involve multilaterals like the World Bank in funding the projects," said Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman, Feedback Ventures. ''I am confident of III's success given that we will have specialists drawn from the strong pool of over three hundred infrastructure professionals from both organisations.

Where necessary, local and international experts will be drawn in to support III's work,'' he added.

''With private capital and entrepreneurship waiting, there is genuine concern about the absence of a sufficiently large number of bankable projects that will act as receptacles or vehicles to absorb private funding in infrastructure. III by providing critical project structuring solutions, will address all these intricate issues and be a neutral facilitator,'' Dr Rajiv Lall, IDFC MD and CEO siad.

Asked about the reasons behind IDFC opting for this venture, Mr Parekh said that IDFC wanted to take advatage of the technical expertise and the relationships built up by Feedback in infrastructure development.

He pointed out that the thrust areas of III in future will be road development, township development, development of industrial parks and special economic zones while Mr Chatterjee pointed out that for the bidding of projects, III would target the state governments.

UNI ARB SD RS1640