The various options available and used for involving the private sector in urban infrastructure development are service contracts, management contracts, leases and concessions etc.

He said depending on the options used private sector participation could help to:

bring technical and managerial expertise to the sector,

improve operating efficiency,

result in large-scale injections of capital and greater efficiency in the use of that capital,

reduce the need for subsidies, and

increase responsiveness to consumer needs and perferences.

However, constraints in the way of financingof housing and infrastructure projects have to be remedied with constructive efforts from all stake holders.

This would entail sharing of all risks including financial or commercial.Suresh said it was also being increasingly realised that the user participation, either as provider or for performance assessment could be critical to the effectiveness of the project. The efficiency of the smaller community level infrastructure services in terms of the provision and operation at the local level could be better handled by the user or community groups.

However, in the absence of any reliable market signal mechanism gauging demand and customer preference is not possible so more innovative arrangements for involving user and community groups could help to assess these far better. Design of these special contracts need skills and attention to maintain the basic principles of competition. Specially, attention has to be paid to tender price and service levels, designing of the bidding and tendering process andworking out the trade-offs between cost efficiency and service reliability.