Global Investors's Meet: 7,500 km arterial road to be developed in Karnataka
BANGALORE: For the first time, Karnataka plans to undertake road development projects through viability gap funding (VGP) in order to make them profitable for promoters.
Initially, state plans to upgrade 7500 km of arterial roads in the state through viability gap funding in next two years following approval from the Center.
The state government intends to involve the private sector in a big way to provide quality roads through VGP scheme. And we are hoping to achieve it at Global Investors Meet,'' S C Khuntia, principal secretary, PWD said.
The proposed project will be executed under public-private partnership model, involving an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. After a pre-bid meeting with interested developers at the GIM, the government has decided to call for the final bidding sooner or later.
The concept of viability gap funding was introduced by the Government of India about five years back to attract promoters for projects which may not immediately be otherwise viable. However, Karnataka struck to its old method of offering land for commercial development to developers that failed to cut ice over the years. The decision to go in for viability funding has been taken to minimize the problems associated with land acquisition,'' PWD minister C M Udasi said.
Like PWD, the cash-starved BBMP too is lobbying hard at the Global Investors meet to offer a dozen of its infrastructure-related projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
The civic agency which is neck-deep into financial problems, is hoping the investors to plough in over '1,057 crore into the city.
Building of sky-walks with escalators at various spots in Bangalore to help pedestrians cross busy roads and constructing abattoirs are on its list of projects for foreign investment.
The desperation was writ large on faces of BBMP officials at their stall at GIM expo as they were giving away Registration Of Interest (ROI) form to all visitors.
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