Monday, November 2, 2009
Rs 3.5 bn for Delhi's infrastructure ahead of Commonwealth games
We have spoken about political will at many points in the course. A stimulus like the Commonwealth games forces the country to develop infrastructure on a fast-track basis. The SAF Games in Chennai, for instance, triggered rapid infrastructure development. After the games, the residential facilities built for the sportspersons were converted into housing facility for government employees, and the swimming pool, etc. are open to the public for use.
On the one hand, while the government imposes on itself deadlines like Sonia Gandhi's birthday, I think hosting such events of international importance could be a potential area for fast-track world class infrastructure development in urban cities.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Private firms may invest $150bn in infrastructure
Friday, October 16, 2009
A new Indian Public Sector
http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/jul/eco-bridge.htm
The Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam, which was on the verge of being liquidated, has now turned the corner and built over 330 bridges in three years. The cause has been championed by Mr. Pratyaya Amrit ( :-) ) , an IAS officer of the batch of 1991.
The best part about this story is that it was effected in Bihar. Presently, the company is looking at expanding beyond Bihar and building bridges in other states!
The takeaways from this story are multifold. For instance, Mr Amrit came up with the idea of the “Mobile Inspector” system where all Executive Engineers have a GPRS enabled sim card in their phones. They can go to the site, photograph the bridge, take out their pencil stylus and fill in details like the name of the bridge, its location and status. It is then directly sent to the chairman who sees it on his computer in his office. Everyday, the Chairman monitors the progress. There is thus, a new sense of accountability.
The story is a great read and was shared to me by Vikas. I felt it has a lot of importance for this class. Comments please?
Regards,
Amrit Acharya
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Hogenakkal Water Supply Project
- It says "Re-Invitation", presumably implying that no one responded the first time around. What could be the reasons? Has anything changed this time around?
- The GoTN has recieved financial assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
- The contract is for construction and maintenance for a period of five years, and is unit-rate based.
- The pre-qualification documents are available for free, possibly to encourage more small time contractors.
Any comments/observations?
Harsha
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Public-private partnership deals no longer confidential
Sunday, September 13, 2009
PPP's - long term private capital involvement.
Since it is believed that private operator is better at providing quality, instead of a PPP we can go for other types of contract where private player operates(maintenance of a facility) for a fixed fee. But it only means direct investment by the government all the time. So, a PPP effectively involves private capital for long time. Apart from problems that arise in initial stages of PPP's such as procuring permits, land acquisition, many problems with PPP's arise because they are longterm. some of them are Political uncertainities, Inflation, apparent complete privatization(perception of general public) of basic provisions by the government and foreign exchange risks if global players are involved.
Another difficult or perhaps the most important challenge is to bring institutional change in general public about government has responsibility to provide all amenities absolutely free. With the advent of the PPP, the problem became more pronounced since public is reluctant to pay more tariffs(example : water). Is it reasonable to conclude that many problems faced by PPP projects are because they are longterm?
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Cultural Diversity in Project World - Can it be celebrated?
In a mobile project world, it is quite a possibility that the project managers would end up working in a variety of cultures or work with people who reflect an array of multi-cultural perspectives. Projects around the world are found to showcase similar kinds of threats and opportunities that are non-technical and quite often identified as cultural.To name a few, some cultures invite very direct speech, while others abstain from it. Some cultures follow a very formal chain-of-command in terms of project communications, while other cultures promote a more horizontal flow of information.
A Project Manager working within a particular cultural environment will necessarily reflect that culture, both explicitly and implicitly. Now, is this a good reason to learn to value and celebrate the cultural diversity in one's project world?
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Bandra-Worli Sea Link
Lessons to learn from
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link presents an interesting case-study of infrastructure planning and management issues, in line with our discussion on the Montreal Olympic Stadium. The sea-link was originally conceived of in 1960s, but received a green signal only in 1999, after studies were conducted by the Central Road Research Institute and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was appointed as the nodal agency for the project in 1999. The MSRDC awarded the project to the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), but only to see a series of failure in meeting deadlines. The initial deadline was December 2004 which was later revised to December 2007 and then to December 2008. Actual work, however, did not commence until January 2005 when the Supreme Court gave the project go-ahead. The consequences of haphazard planning and scheduling, as was evident in the Montreal case, are reflected in this example as well.
The MSRDC changed consultants in 2003 and gave entry to Egypt-based Dar Consultants. The new party brought in tremendous design changes which escalated the costs by four times (Rs 4.4 billion to Rs 16.34 billion). HCC is said to have lost about Rs 4 billion due to these changes. Thus we see the role of designing and its crucial place in the overall implementation of an infrastructure project.
In April 2009, days before the completion of the project, three sets of sub-contractors threatened to pull out due to issues with the consultants. One of them, the Roman Tarmant Ltd., was about to obtain a contract for Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB) surfacing to provide a water-proof road. However, the company backed out due to unreasonable conditions on warranty period. The wide spectrum of players involved in an infrastructure project and the corresponding human management that the size of such projects calls for is evident in this case.
A part of the rise in costs was due to the interests on borrowings and payment to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for a casting yard, an instance that shows how economic factors can equally inflect a project just as any other. Also to be noted is the fact that around 4000 workers and 150 engineers from India as well as China, Egypt, Canada, Switzerland and Britain are said to have participated in the project, which would have demanded micro-level cultural integration, a pointed that was highlighted in the class.
A few local issues like environmental concerns and issues pertaining to the fishermen, also surfaced during construction, which, though parochial, could have impeded the completion of the project. The Bandra-Worli sea-link, however, managed to brush such concerns aside with active political support from the state. To epilogue, this project presents many of the nuances involved in infrastructure planning and shows the amount of meticulousness that the task calls for.
Sources:
Indian Infrastructure, July 2009
"Bandra-Worli Sea Link: A Traveller's Delight", The Economic Times, June 30, 2009
(http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Infrastructure/Bandra-Worli-sea-link-A-travellers-delight-/articleshow/4718082.cms)
Official Website (http://www.bandraworlisealink.com/)
Planning Infrastructure projects
Friday, September 4, 2009
Augmenting Supply vs. Increasing the efficiency of use
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Delhi Metro - Some Interesting Facts.
- Presence of a champion figure in E. Sreedharan.
- Some form of reduction in Vigilance and audit has helped the decision making to become a lot quicker.
- Huge tax exemptions and soft loans provided are a critical factor for the success.
- Land acquisition was done under emergency clause of Land Acquisition act ! (I do not know whether we can acquire land under emergency clause for metros anymore.)
- He also makes a point towards the end about replicability and development of second string of leadership.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
National Sanitation Policy 2008
In continuation of the discussion in today's class on Urban Infrastructure, I wish to mention the National Sanitation Policy 2008.
The GoI announced the National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008 with the vision that “all Indian cities and towns become totally sanitized, healthy and liveable and ensure and sustain good public health and environmental outcomes for all their citizens with a special focus on hygienic and affordable sanitation facilities for the urban poor and women".
The institutional arrangements encourages the local urban bodies to come up with a City Sanitation Plan involving the multiple stakeholders of the city. The policy also envisages constitution of a City Sanitation Task Force, headed by the Mayor (does one exist?? :P) involving the key stakeholders including representatives from the civil societies. In addition, the policy also announced a National Award Scheme for Sanitation for Indian Cities with a proposed methodology on the rating and categorization of cities on 100 points scale based on their performance.
You can find a nice summary of the policy here.
You can also download the policy (PDF) here.
Harshavardhan R.
Monday, August 10, 2009
PPPs in Infrastructure
We might reflect on this later in the semester, but there seems to be a gradual shift in the ways infrastructure is being viewed, moving from being transaction or deal-focused to a more holistic integration of long-term sustainability goals. This certainly seems to be the right approach to follow. However, it remains to be seen as to how we actually implement such strategies in practice, outside conferences.