CRISIL, Deloitte, E&Y to advise on core projects

There is likely to be greater clarity and understanding on infrastructure projects. The government has roped in CRISIL Infrastructure advisory, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, Ernst and Young Pvt Ltd, RITES and IDFC as transaction advisers for infrastructure projects routed through the public private partnership (PPP) mode.

They are a part of 12 member advisory panel set up by the finance ministry to facilitate private funds in such projects.

The panel will act as consultants for infrastructure projects routed through the public private partnership (PPP) model and will determine their feasibility and suitability.

In other words, they would be expected to prepare the feasibility reports, work on the financial aspects of the projects, do the legal documentation as well as evaluate the eligibility of private bidders and recommend investors for the projects.

The services of these consultants would be available to the Centre and state governments, municipal authorities and other agencies that are undertaking PPP transactions.

However for large projects such as airport or port development, where the cost is expected to be very high, the government is likely to still get separate financial, legal and technical expertise.

Set up for a period of two years, the panel would be supervised by the department of economic affairs and will have to submit a report to the department after completing their assignments.

The panel has been set up mainly due to concerns concern over the lack of bankable projects in the infrastructure sector.

Finance minister P Chidambaram said the government needed to come up with a more aggressive approach for preparing a shelf of bankable projects that could be offered for competitive bidding.

The infrastructure sector requires investments to the tune of $400 billion in the coming five years. While the government has prepared a blueprint to bring forth such investments?a large chunk of which is expected to come through the public private partnership route?the lack of viable projects has proven to be a cause of concern.