‘‘The Public-private Partnership Model Works”

Posted: Saturday, Jul 10, 2004 at 0200 hrs IST
Updated: Saturday, Jul 10, 2004 at 0200 hrs IST

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: The government took a giant leap forward last month in airports modernisation when it approved 74 per cent private partnership in Delhi and Mumbai projects. The same day, it also appointed Australia-based Meinhardt group’s wholly-owned subsidiary Airport Planning (Airplan) as the global technical advisor for the two airports. Meinhardt’s India director Rajesh Srivastava spoke to Veeshal Bakshi on Airplan’s role and advantages of public-private partnership. Excerpts:

What will be the exact role of Airplan in restructuring and modernisation of New Delhi and Mumbai airports?
We will have a very wide ranging role. Airplan will assist the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA), Airports Authority of India (AAI) and its advisors in evaluating expression of interest submissions and final bids and in negotiations with bidders relating to technical matters with particular focus on the proposed airport development plans and business plans submitted. Our role will also be to recommend evaluation criteria for assessing 10 to 20 year development plans, review and assess mandatory capital expenditure proposed by AAI and MCA in years 1 to 5, review master plans to be provided by successful bidders where we will also assist AAI in finalising the same. We will also review the assessment capacity of the two airports based on data and other reports provided by the Airports Authority of India.

What are Meinhardt’s plans in India for other infrastructure sectors?
We have been present in India for the past two years and are involved in several projecs including the Golden Quadrilateral highway, a mass housing project for defence personnel, the largest residential complex in Kolkata spread over 4 million sq. ft with 35-storeyed buildings, a super speciality hospital in Mumbai, an IT park in Chennai and 4-5 shopping mall projects in various cities. We are also looking at mass rapid transport system (MRTS) projects.

The Manmohan Singh government has decided to go in for public-private partnership for the two airport project. Don’t you think that straight privatisation is a better option?
We believe that the public-private partnership model works very well as the government is responsible for regulatory risks while the private sector takes the commercial risk. Such a model has been successful globally in projects such as the Sydney airport. It ensures that the assets involved are planned, developed and maintained over a number of years in peak form, thus ensuring the revenue stream that guarantees their financing. Allocation of a risk is a fundamental part of...

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