Bitten by the economic slowdown bug, many of the ambitious infrastructure projects coming up in the public private partnership (PPP) mode in Punjab are facing delay.
Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), the nodal agency for executing the state?s most ambitious infrastructure projects, is re-inviting bids for a number of them as earlier bidders failed to turn up for the execution of the ventures.
According to official sources in PIDB, projects for which bids were invited between September-February are being delayed.
PIDB will re-invite bids for the Habitat Centre at Mohali (Rs 150 crore), the five-star hotel and international convention centre, Mohali (Rs 350 crore), and the IT Tower, Mohali (Rs 150 crore). PIDB had to approve a bid of Rs 57 crore for a 10-storey bus terminus-cum-commercial tower in Mohali.
Earlier, there was a bid of Rs 201 crore, but the bidder withdrew. The original bidder company, Aakruti City Ltd, had to pay the government Rs 200 crore upfront and another Rs 10 crore every year with a 5% increase each year for the next 90 years.
The board is at the final stages of giving approval to bids for another bus terminal planned at Patiala. The board is yet to re-invite bids for the bus-terminal planned for Bathinda.
The project of for the revival of dying flying clubs in Amritsar and Ludhiana, worth Rs 20 crore each will also face delay as the highest bidder for the two US-based flying school, Indo-American Institute of Aeronautics, failed to turn up despite the repeated requests made by the state government.
Apart from this, a non-resident Indian who had bid for setting up Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences at Jalandhar has failed to turn up.
Speaking to FE, a PIDB official maintained, ?Now, the scene seems to be getting better and we have started getting good response from companies. Infrastructure fee collection has increased and our revenue has risen from Rs 200 crore to Rs 600 crore in the 2008-09. We are expecting the touch the target of Rs 800 crore in 2009-10.?
