Odisha govt targets Rs 50 bn worth PPP projects

During the 12th Five-year Plan period (2012-17), Odisha government plans to commission Rs 5,000 crore worth PPP (public private partnership) projects. The state government has already operationalised 12 projects while nine are under various stages of construction. These are part of the 54 projects identified by the state government for implementation on the PPP mode. The 12 projects include non-major port project at Dhamara, market-cum-residential complex at Sahidnagar locality in Bhubaneswar among others. According to the state minister for planning and coordination Maheshwar Mohanty, bidding process has been completed for 23 projects and concessionaire agreements have been signed for 31 others.These projects were approved between April 2009 and October 2012. The state government created special funds to facilitate the process of achieving this target. These funds are Odisha Infrastructure Project Development Fund, Odisha Viability Gap Fund, Project Development and Facility Fund for road sector and Odisha Urban Infrastructure Development Fund. In order to carry out different technical studies, the state government alloted Rs 98 cr in these funds, matching support to central viability gap funding, engagement of transaction advisors, conducting feasibility studies.