Market Analysis and Economic Development

Public-Private Partnership extensively alludes to the long haul, legally binding partnerships between the public and private division organizations, explicitly focused on financing, designing, implementing, and operating infrastructure facilities and services that were traditionally provided by the public segment. A primary reason the public sector enters into these kinds of partnerships is to attract private capital investments, to effectively and efficiently use the available resources, and to transform and shape the varied sectors of the economy.

Delhi Noida Direct flyway in India is the tale of how path-breaking financial modernization gave India its very first public-private partnership for infrastructure.

Delhi has bagged rank in the top 30 metropolitan economic entities globally. In the early '90s, it was clear that Noida's sprouting population needed a direct link to Delhi across the Yamuna river. Existing bridges would not content public needs; movement consumed over one hour, and the rubber-necking traffic was the bonus, making the air polluted at worse. Another route over the waterway was fundamental; however, the budgetary assets for such an enormous project were not obtainable.

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Finally, like a ray of sunshine comes up, the company named IL&FS, who conceived this Delhi-Noida project as a PPP project. This PPP project was build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT), which meant that the private sector was responsible for building the project and operating it for the concession period of 30 years, after which the project would revert to the government for a nominal sum of 1. This project, named 'DND flyway.' The project marks the shortest route between Noida and Delhi- the busiest cities in the Indian economy and the cities bringing in significant GDP contributions.

With the other two roadways connecting the two cities, this connect-way was the only one that was tolled.

A committee named NTBCL was incorporated to develop, establish, design, construct, operate and maintain the Delhi Noida Toll Bridge. Later on, the government came upfront with the point that the toll should not be taken as the flyway has been constructed for public interest and to make the commute easy and hassle-free and not to gain money and exploit the public to gain the project costs. Evidently, there was no clearly stated separation between the roles of the public sector as concedent and the private sector as a concessionaire. The recurrent complaints about the DND flyway that the toll was extremely high when compared to much longer expressways, which were toll-free. NTBCL argued that their legal contracts allowed the collection of 20% of the cost of the project, and the government bodies would have to pay the remaining amount of costs and profits if they decide to terminate the contract.

The matter, when reached to the courts of the country, was declared redundant, and it was observed that the total cost of the project could never be recovered. The bridge will never be free from levy of the toll if the formula for calculation that the company used was allowed to continue. So finally after the ruckus and the public complaints, it was observed that the main motive behind a PPP which is the private sector bears the risk was not achieved as the contract says that the risk of loss in any case is to be borne by the concessionaire. Also, it was unclear what standards were being used to decide the rate of return. Finally, in the year 2016, it was declared that the user fee which is being levied is not supported by the legal provisions relied upon by the Concessionaire (NTBC) and the promoter and developer of the project. Considering the collection from the public as unjust, the court directed the company to stop collecting the user fee, thereby making the facility Toll Free.

Since PPP projects are originally meant to foster economic growth and development of the nation, this was a decision in favor. PPP projects aim at maximizing efficiency gains, which can be improved by producing the same output at a lower cost or producing more and better outputs at the same cost. Also, indirectly it promotes employment opportunities. Considering the infrastructure sector as an example, this sector promotes abundant job opportunities, which further promotes economic growth. Many shreds of evidence and cases show the optimistic and huge effect of private sector support in access, services qualities, labor productivity, and deduction in technical losses. The size of the effect changes by segment and size of the undertaking and with the specific situation.

Still, there is an alarming need in India to overcome the barriers to PPP projects. The weakness in enabling policy and regulatory framework is one of the primary barriers. The market presently lacks instruments and capacity to meet the long-term equity and debt financing needed by infrastructure projects and lacks credible and viably structured projects.