Looking to improve the quality and pace of infrastructure development in the country by encouraging private sector participation in the sector, the Department of Economic Affairs, under the Ministry of Finance, has notified the Scheme for Financial Support for Project Development Expenses of PPP Projects – India Infrastructure Project Development Fund Scheme (IIPDF Scheme).
The Scheme will aid the development of quality PPP projects by providing necessary funding support to the project sponsoring authorities, both in the Central and State Governments, for creating a shelf of bankable, viable PPP projects. As per the Government, funding under IIPDF Scheme is in addition to the already operational Scheme for Financial Support to PPPs in Infrastructure (VGF Scheme), through which infrastructure projects are undertaken through PPP mode that is economically justified, but commercially unviable are supported.
The Infrastructure Finance Secretariat (IFS), DEA, has undertaken several initiatives for boosting the PPP ecosystem in the country covering the entire gamut of the PPP lifecycle. A key step in structuring quality PPP projects is to provide quality advisory/consultancy services to the Project Sponsoring Authorities (PSAs). To address the issue of delay in the onboarding of the appropriate Transaction Advisers (TAs) or non-optimal structuring of PPP projects, the Department of Economic Affairs also notified a panel of pre-qualified TAs on 01.07.2022 and developed a Manual for utilisation of this panel.
