With a view to building strong public-private partnerships in infrastructure and achieve the twin objectives of high growth and equity, the government on Wednesday launched a new infrastructure policy. The State Cabinet, which met here, gave approval for the new policy.

Briefing reporters on the deliberations, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M P Prakash said the policy aimed at “expanding, deepening and developing private investment in infrastructure as a means to achieve high growth”.

It also aims at establishing Karnataka as a role-model for infrastructure development.

Recognising the need to develop high-quality infrastructure as a means to achieve rapid economic growth, the Government of Karnataka had come out with an Infrastructure Policy in 1997.

With the passage of time, there have been changes in the tax and stamp duty regime, formulation of Government of India’s (GoI) policy of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) in infrastructure projects, and the concept of the Viability Gap Fund (VGF). In line with these changes, GoK has now resolved to formulate this new policy.

High average growth
Mr Prakash said the Government aims to achieve a high average growth rate in the coming years, across all sectors, including infrastructure.

These targets are expected to be achieved by facilitating private sector investment and rapidly upgrading technology.

Mr Prakash said so far the practice was to award the global contracts to to the L1 bidder.
But under the new policy, in addition to L1, other bidders would also be called for negotiations. “Considering various aspects, the bids may be awarded to the L2 or L3 bidder by a high power committee”, he clarified.