Unconfirmed reports indicate that the government would revamp the model concession agreements (MCAs) for public private partnership (PPP) projects in the highway sector.
It may be noted that the existing MCAs have outlived their utility and there are no provisions for addressing emerging problems in many such projects. There is a need to improve the document and if need arises, the union road ministry may rewrite them, reports indicate.
One of the aims for revamping the MCA is to reduce the Planning Commission’s role in the highways sector.
The MCAs were earlier prepared by the plan panel.
This comes after the parliamentary panel on road transport and highways and tourism recommended that the plan panel should refrain from commenting on engineering and technical aspects of highway projects.
The panel said the concession agreement prepared by Planning Commission was an “impediment” in award of projects since such agreements don’t allow flexibility to accommodate local conditions.
It recommended that NHAI be allowed to have it own CAs depending on local conditions for roads to facilitate greater amount of private participation.
Planning Commission and the union road ministry were not in the same page on several issues in the MCA. The ministry and its key arm National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have been critical of a section of Planning Commission which doesn’t want any flexibility in the document to incorporate new changes.
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