PPP project implementation at Major Ports has been slow

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said the public-private partnership (PPP) projects managed to add only 33% to total capacity at the Major Ports up to March 2014, which indicated that this mode was constrained due to the slow progress in the implementation of projects.

The CAG, in its latest report titled PPP Projects in Major Ports’, tabled in Parliament recently, said that the government-controlled ports managed to achieve only 79.80 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity addition during 2010-12 as against the envisaged 315.23 mtpa.

PPP project implementation at Major Ports has been slow

“The PPP model was to ensure faster augmentation of infrastructure and better service quality for the user. However, out of capacity addition of 315.23 mtpa envisaged by the Maritime Agenda 2010-20, the ports achieved capacity addition of 79.80 mtpa (25.31%) during the period.”

Lambasting the bidding process and selection of PPP partners, the government auditor said, “We noticed inconsistencies in the bidding process and selection of PPP partners.

The report added that “Commissioning of projects and inflow of revenue to ports were affected due to delay in non-fulfilment of obligations on the part of the ports/Ministry in respect of obtaining environmental clearance to projects, timely handling over of the project sites.”

Source: http://transreporter.com/