'PPP must for devp of transport infrastructure'

New Delhi, Oct 7: Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T R Baalu today underlined the need of Public-Private Partnership for putting in place the required infrastructure to meet the country's target of 150 million dollar exports by 2008-09 and double its share in world exports from 0.8 to 1.5 per cent.

''PPP is a paradigm shift in Government's apparoach to implementation of the National Highways Development Programmes (NHDP),'' he said speaking at the conference of 'Building Infrastructure : Challenge and Opportunities' orgainsed by the Planning Commission here today.

The country would have to put in place its infrastruture expeditiously to provide comfort to the domestic and foreign investors, and for that private resources were a must as infrastructure projects have a long gestation period and may not be financially viable on their own and their requirement may fall short of budgetary allocations, said the Minister.

The government has laid down comprehensive guidelines for private sector participation in highways sector and have also announced several incentives and tax exemptions and duty-free import of raod building equipment and machinery, said Mr Balu.

Model concession agreements have also been finalised for major road projects. To address concern of private sector regarding high upfront capital investment and high risk of revenue colection, the government has decided to offer some projects on annuity basis in addition to giving several incentives, he said.

The Minister said the NHAI Board has been vested with sufficient powers to sanction projects on a fast track basis and NHAI was also being strengthened to further to enable it to take up larger programmes at accelerated pace.

''The concern voiced by investors regarding delays on account of land acquisition, utility shifting, environment approvals etc have been addressed by setting up of a committee of secretaries under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary,'' he said.

The Minister said he has asked state governments to facilitate barrier-free movement of vehicles through a system of integrated check posts as the average distance covered in a day by commercial vehicles is 250-400 kms, which is not encouraging even from the standards of developing countries leaving aside the developed countries.

He said his Ministry intended to take the initiative beyond by introducing computer chips on the vehicles, which can be read by new generation electronic system.

Mr Baalu said his ministry's approach was to bring about the much-needed synergy between ports and road network, and that was why assured connectivity to the hinterland has been provided to the port sector investors. ''Since port connectivity road projects may not be viable on a stand-alone basis, we have decided that thses will be built and operated by Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV), where ports, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and urban development authorities will be project sponsors,'' he said.

He said the government had formulated a comprehensive National Maritime Develpment Programme (NMDP) for 12 major ports of the country.

Under the programme, a total of 387 projects have been identified involving an investment of about Rs 55,000 crore, he said.

Regarding the shipping industry, he said it was poised to make the best out of the growth opportunities by not only focussing on India-centric trade but also adopting a more global outlook to utilise cross-trade opportunities.

In the shipping sector, a total of 111 projects have been identified under the NMDP with estimated investment of Rs 45,000 crore, said Mr Baalu.

These include establishment of two new international -standard shipbuilding and ship-repair facilities, one each on the east and west coasts through PPP.

Setting up of a Martitime University at Chennai was also being considered, he said.

And with completion of the prestigious Sethusamudram ship channel project in 2008, the critical gap in transport logistics from west coast to east coast and vice versa would be filled, said Mr Baalu.

UNI