September 18, 2019 / 19:13 IST
Joint Secretary for Highways Amit Kumar Ghosh said that Saudi Arabia plans to invest in $100 billion India's infrastructure development.
"We are looking at 100 billion dollar investment by Saudi Arabia in the infrastructure sector," said Ghosh in an address at the Infrastructure Financing Conclave.
Addressing the fear of investors, he said public private partnership (PPP) is still a viable model. He also said that success of the Hybrid-Annuity Model (HAM) model should motivate them to work with it further.
Further, the Secretary hinted that changes may be made to the existing Build Operate Transfer model (BOT). The BOT model remains unchanged since the last 10 years.
He said that the Ministry has sought suggestions from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regarding the same, and hopes to get final inputs in the coming week. He hinted that the new model will have significant improvements in the contracts.
The Secretary also stated that better dialogue with lenders will be initiated. He said that the Ministry is trying to bring in dispute resolution, in order to reduce the need for arbitration.
He said the issue of sanctity of document is being addressed, adding that a new document has been created for the new bids.
"If we are going to allay funds more effectively, we have to look at RFP , particularly for DPR. We will ensure effective allay is done and restructured into the document," said Ghosh.
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He said the issue of land acquisition requires further attention, stating that if DPR is not well made, there will always be issues on closure of land acquisition.
"Despite the DPR consultant report being there, it is the contractor who carries out the whole project report once again. That's when he finds out the problems in land acquisition," said Ghosh.
He admitted that brownfield projects and emerging townships face challenge of even basic surveys being carried out. In some cases, the HAM projects have been awarded and the appointed date has been given but problems persist.
He concluded that the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) scheme remains attractive for investors, despite the second bundle not getting expected bids. He said there are ToT bundles for which there is sufficient interest.
The Centre will give priority to securitisation of toll revenue and formation of InvITs.
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