Now, government forms panel for PPP projects in Kalyana Karnataka

The state government has constituted a new 16-member monitoring committee that it hopes will raise investors’ confidence to take up projects in the backward Kalyana Karnataka region under public-private partnership (PPP).

The Kalyana Karnataka region, which enjoys special status under the Constitution (Article 371J), comprises Kalaburagi, Bidar, Ballari, Koppal, Raichur, Yadgir and Vijayanagara districts.

The committee was constituted four years after the government’s PPP Policy of 2018 mandated its formation. The committee is expected to monitor the progress of PPP projects on a quarterly basis.

“There’s a very small window or category when it comes to investments, which is called PPP. The objective of this committee is to provide any hand holding that may be required initially,” Additional Chief Secretary (Infrastructure Development) Gaurav Gupta, who heads the monitoring committee, said.

The PPP Policy 2018 bats for “special thrust” on infrastructure development in the Kalyana Karnataka region. This includes preparing an Infrastructure Strategic Action Plan for the region that would “address key social and economic infrastructure such as roads and bridges, healthcare, educational, drinking water supply, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, sericulture and urban development”.

The Kalyana Karnataka region has its own funding mechanism through the Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB). So, the presence of the KKRDB secretary in the monitoring committee is meant to ensure coordination.

The Kalyana Karnataka region received Rs 1,500 crore in the previous fiscal.

“This committee is only for PPP projects that typically involve the government providing land and investment by a private entity. The money spent by the government through the KKRDB is separate,” Gupta said, adding that the committee will “give encouragement wherever there’s an incentive for a PPP project”.

The monitoring committee for Kalyana Karnataka is another attempt by the government to breathe life into the PPP sector, which many argue has failed to take off. Officials say, however, that scepticism in the private sector towards the Kalyana Karnataka region and the “different socio-economic milieu” are challenges.

Since 2007, buoyed by the success of the Kempegowda International Airport, Karnataka has approved 92 infrastructure projects under PPP. Only a few of them have taken off, signifying fundamental flaws in the government’s approach.

What’s more, the PPP policy of 2018 has generated little interest within the government, according to the infrastructure development department.

Earlier this year, the government reconstituted the Single Window Agency for PPP projects headed by the chief secretary to expedite clearances.