Although the last five years have seen rolling out of many water infrastructure projects, there is still more needs to be done, says Pawan Mathur, Director-Water & Heat Segment, Itron India, in an email interview with Sudheer Vathiyath.How do you assess the current scenario in the urban water sector in India
Author: admin (Infratructure Today)
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Breaking the vicious (water) cycle
An efficient water utility is at the core of the reform process. The roadmap for utility reform has to overcome the triple problems of low investments, low recovery, and poor levels of service, writes Abhay Kantak The urban water supply and sewerage (WSS) utilities in India suffer from poor quality infrastructure and service delivery.
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Need community driven growth
PPC can bring in substantial capital and world class technology into India at a competitive rate, says Puneet Thakur, Director-Projects, AFII Corporate Advisors, in an email interaction with Infrastructure Today.What are the major achievements of AFII in infrastructure sector advisory
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Enhance plan allocation | Budget 2013-14
Aviation Finance Corporation (AFC), an SPV providing dedicated capital, can be set up by the government to facilitate lower interest rates and longer maturity of loans. Private airport operators should be allowed to issue long term non-taxable infrastructure bonds to raise the required funding from the market. RBI limits on sectoral funding should be eased, thereby removing the current compulsion for airport developers to raise required funds/debt from multiple banks, making process time consumi
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Remove policy jam | Budget 2013-14
There should be a steady policy and quick redressal of the policy changes that have been brought to the attention of NHAI, AAI, AERA and such organisations. Approval procedures for land acquisition, environment clearance and financing policies for infrastructure need a re-think with a background that they should result in profitability and surpluses for the infrastructure companies investing in these sectors.
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Focus on skilled manpower | Budget 2013-14
Skill enhancement: Availability of skilled manpower and semi-skilled manpower is becoming a bottleneck in execution of projects.Thus enhancing skills for construction sector would help the GDP growth as well. While this problem is being addressed and does not have an immediate solution, semi-skilled manpower development programmes may be included in schemes like NREGA which should encourage skill-enhancement so that over a period they would be employable by the industry.
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Swift approvals for power projects | Budget 2013-14
The country is presently in need of an energy security policy, conveying use of portfolios, basket of fuels; followed by guidelines on how regulators must ensure that at each state level, tariffs are built using bulk sourcing of power, based on prudent mix of portfolio of fuel - comprising of both imported and domestic. In addition, a long-term view needs to be taken to ensure energy security through the development of appropriate alternatives to conventional fuels.
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Facilitate training for technical manpower | Budget 2013-14
Recognise construction industry as a labour intensive industry: There has been a low rate of employment growth in the manufacturing sector. Construction is a labour intensive sector having an employment elasticity of 0.88, higher than agriculture. Presently, employs 30 million people and is expected to generate another 70 million jobs by 2016.
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mprove PPP structure | Budget 2013-14
Besides the need for enhancing capacity which is being met through major capital works like the DFC project, investment in rolling stock, providing improved terminal access, and improvements and investment in the last leg connectivity between the rail network and the cargo loading and unloading points are likely to be key areas that will need to be addressed through various policy initiatives of the Railways.
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Create positive vibes for investments | Budget 2013-14
Abolition of MAT during tax holiday period: Infrastructure company avail tax holiday benefit under 80-IA. Given long gestation and criticality of infrastructure, they are given a 10 year tax holiday. However, it is basically an exemption from paying income tax on the profits and paying MAT on book profits. So, whatever the projects are supposed to have conserved through the 80-IA benefits are being taken away by the MAT levy.