The FICCI-organised India Infrastructure Summit 2012 was a platform for various stakeholders from the infrastructure sector to debate and discuss policy related issues.
The India Infrastructure Summit 2012, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), held in New Delhi. The summit served as a platform for policy debate relating to infrastructure in India. Government, policy makers, regulatory authorities, infrastructure developers, construction companies, financial institutions and other stakeholders were part of the debate and discussions.
Inaugurating the summit, Dr CP Joshi, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, said the Union Ministry of Roads & Highways in consultation with the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry, has formulated the "Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract Agreement document to create a contractual framework for construction of highways in an efficient, economical and competitive environment.
Joshi said, "The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) has recently accorded its approval to the EPC Contract document. It will minimise, if not eliminate, the time and cost over-runs characteristic of the extant Item Rate Contracts. Further, this will enable a faster roll-out of projects with least cost and greater efficiency and flexibility encouraging contractors to participate in such projects.
The Minister told the delegates that the EPC mode of execution would ensure implementation of the road projects to specified standards with a fair degree of certainty relating to costs and time while transferring the design and construction risks to the contractors. "We are planning to award 4,000 km of highway projects under the EPC mode contract this year. These projects will primarily aim at two-laning of single-laned roads on existing right of way thus not involving much land acquisition," Dr Joshi said.
He also announced that the Ministry has received the approval of (CCI) for awarding projects in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) domain on Operate-Maintain-Transfer (OMT) basis. Dr BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, Government of India, in his address, stated that the target for construction of roads has been raised from 7,300 km to 8,000 km per year. The government will also double the investment on rural roads during the 12th Plan period, he said. He added that the government was committed to early resolution of disputes pertaining to land acquisition for infrastructure projects and roads, rail and power line projects were being taken up on priority.
At the Summit, Dr Joshi launched the FICCI-Ernst & Young report on "Accelerating implementation of infrastructure projects.
The summit was addressed, amongst others, by Hemant Kanoria, Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Infrastructure and CMD, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd; Adil Zaidi, Associate Director, Ernst & Young; KK Kapila, Co-Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Infrastructure & CMD, ICT (P) Ltd; Pratyush Kumar, Co-Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Infra¡structure & President & CEO, GE Transportation, South Asia; Rajiv Agarwal, Co-Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Infrastructure and MD & CEO, Essar Ports; and Dr Rajiv Kumar, Secretary General, FICCI.
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