The ministry of ports, shipping and waterways has come out with detailed guidelines to deal with stressed public-private-partnership (PPP) projects at major ports, a move which it expects to unlock 27 million tonne per annum cargo-handling capacity. As per reports, for projects which became stressed during the construction stage i.e., pre-COD stage, the concessioning authority, usually the major port, would pay, as full and final settlement, for taking over the useful assets created by the concessionaire.
The settlement amount would be equal to the lower the value of the work done and found useful by the major port or 90 per cent of debt due as defined in the concession agreement. In projects where the work has stopped due to the inability to continue with the execution of the project and the borrowings having been categorised by lenders as non-performing assets or proceedings initiated, the due processes will be followed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 or under the Companies Act 2013.
