CII welcomes FM's move to promote PPPs

CHENNAI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today welcomed the recent

move by the Finance Minister in urging States Governments to set targets to the

tune of Rs.2000 crores annually, for investments in infrastructure projects

through public-private partnerships (PPPs).

In a statement issued here, M Lakshminarayan, chairman, CII (Southern Region)

said that the Finance Minister's initiative to promote infrastructure projects

in States on the PPP mode would speed up the economic development of the region

through large-scale private investment.

He also complemented the Finance Minister for mooting the idea of setting up

exclusive PPP Cell in the planning/finance departments with a nodal officer in

the State Governments to coordinate with the Centre and other agencies on

infrastructure projects.

Lakshminarayan also said that the CII has identified 10 PPP projects in

infrastructure in the southern States covering Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore,

Madurai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Pondicherry.

CII has also conducted feasibility studies for these PPP projects.

Significant among those is the Confederation promoting PPP in converting

Siruseri IT Park of Chennai into a Special Economic Zone, for which a

feasibility study for this project was also completed.

At Coimbatore, CII had conducted Avinashi Road Study for converting the

Avinashi Road into a six-lane one with better infrastructure for a 16 km stretch

from Nanjappa Road Junction to L&T Bypass.

The study was done in association with Tamil Nadu Road Development

Corporation.

At Madurai, CII has completed the study on traffic assessment of the Madurai

Airport and the scope of converting it into an international airport.

In Andhra Pradesh, CII has recently undertaken a study on the Industrial

Potential of three districts in Andhra Pradesh namely, Kadappa, Ananthpur and

Chittoor

The Confederation is a member of the Empowered Committee on Infrastructure

Development of Bangalore City set up by the Government of Karnataka besides

forming an Infrastructure Panel at Mysore with the support of the District

Administration to identify and address the infrastructural requirements of the

manufacturing and services sector.

Among the PPP projects identified by the Confederation in Pondicherry are the

development of Pondicherry Port and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across the

major manufacturing clusters in the Union Territory.

“The Confederation has been actively following up with the respective State

Government agencies in reviewing and implementing the identified projects,” he

added in this regard.

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