Summit on sustainable PPP's in infrastructure

Bangalore, June 19 (UNI) An estimated 320 billion Dollar investment is needed in the next four to five years to sustain the nine per cent growth being witnessed in the infrastructure development sector, said J P Nayak, Chairman, SUMINFRA-2007-- a summit on sustainable PPP's in infrastructure, scheduled to be held here on July 6-7.

Addressing a newsconference here today, he said the summit, jointly supported by private and public sectors of the four Southern State Governments, would focus on both structural and sectoral issues concerning infrastructure development.

Mr Nayak said the SUMINFRA-2007, a unique forum promoted by CII southern region, was intended to facilitate Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure development in the southern States which accounts more than 54 per cent of country's total export volume of over 12.5 billion dollar.

The event designed to unveil opportunities for private sector in infrastructure development in various areas in the southern region, also showcases private sector experiences with PPPs in infrastructure projects.

''The Summit will also serve as a forum of all the stakeholders to come together to exchange their ideas and share information about projects available in the present scenario'' he added.

The summit also would focus on sectoral issues including urban structures, transport and logistic and also involvement of community in the PPP's infrastructure projects.

Mr Nayak said taking into cognisance the issues dealt extensively during the last four editions, the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu Governments had come out with their respective infrastructure development policies while Karnataka Government had already taken initiative in this direction.

Karnataka Infrastructure Secretary V P Baligar, who was also present, said taking into consideration the vast resources pool available in the private sector, the state government had decided to encourage PPPs in infrastructure sector in all its future projects.

It would also help the state government to channelise resources available with it to the social sector, he added.

Stating that the process of acquisition of land was a challenging task, Mr Baligar expressed confidence that the coming summit would come out with more fruitful solutions.

UNI