Karnataka govt accelerates 2018 policy to push for PPP in infra

Karnataka is looking to revive public-private partnership in the infrastructure sector by operationalising a policy that has been dormant for two years.

In March 2018, the government rejigged its PPP policy for infrastructure projects, increasing the single-window sanction limit to Rs 500 crore from Rs 50 crore. It also prescribes interventions to ensure better implementation of projects.

Under this policy, the government has now constituted a PPP committee in every district. In effect, these committees will iron out procedural hassles that PPP projects are likely to face at the local level.

“The 2018 policy hadn’t been operationalised. Also, the Atmanirbhar package of the Centre mostly envisages PPP. So, we wanted to give it a renewed push,” Infrastructure Development principal secretary Kapil Mohan told DH.

The district-level committees, headed by the deputy commissioner, will play a key role in facilitating PPP projects.

“They will ease out hassles that PPP projects face at the district-level. For instance, we have impregnable, tough land laws that are prone to be misused. Also, projects will need coordination with other authorities over land, electricity, water supply and so on,” Mohan said.

“If you’re charging a toll, for example, you’ll need to liaise with the police and the local civic body. If you take up development of a park, you have to charge for tickets, which people can question. It’s these things that the district-level committees have to sort out,” he said.

Authorities admit that PPP had not seen much success in the state, of late, with many approved projects languishing. According to information made public by the government, only seven of the 71 PPP projects approved have seen completion since 2007.

According to sources, this is because there is some gap within the government on understanding how PPP projects work. But Mohan said the government was keen on making PPP work.

“We’re going now into uncharted territories such as agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, housing, energy... we’re looking at PPP in the logistics space,” he said.

“We’re working on PPP for the development of the Belekeri port, the rolling stock of the suburban rail project and the development of areas around upcoming airports in Shivamogga, Vijayapura and Karwar,” he said, adding that the government was trying to attract investments for the region around the new Kalaburagi airport.