Principal Secretary Finance to head PPP projects Steering Committee

Jammu: J&K government Wednesday, in partial modification of its previous order, directed that the Principal Secretary Finance Department would be the chairman of the Steering Committee for PPP projects in place of Chief Secretary, J&K.

Steering panel, headed by the Chief Secretary, and Public Private Partnership cum Project Appraisal (PPCPA) Cell in the Planning Development & Monitoring Department were constituted vide Government Order No 118-JK(GAD) of 2023 dated January 27, 2023 to monitor departmental projects in J&K.

PPCPA Cell, in coordination with the Steering panel, was entrusted with the responsibility to oversee the selection, formulation and implementation of the projects to be undertaken by different departments.

Steering panel for PPP projects, following this modification, will now comprise Principal Secretary Finance as its chairman and Administrative Secretaries of Revenue; Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs departments and that of concerned implementing department as its members. The Administrative Secretary Planning Development & Monitoring department will be its member secretary.

The mandate of the panel will also have to approve the projects for funding under the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme of the Government of India and other sources of funding.

PPCPA Cell, vide order issued on January 27, 2023, was mandated to seek qualified professionals as consultants or domain experts to be housed in the PPCPA for institutional, regulatory and procedural reforms in the projects to be undertaken by different departments in J&K under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and work towards standardization of PPP documents.

Its yet another task was to develop concession agreements in different sectors; appraisal of projects, framing of Standard Bid Documents, scrutinizing the cost escalation proposals and preparation of a shelf of projects.

The Cell was mandated to build the capacity of the government to hand-hold various departments in identification, preparation and implementation of projects under PPP mode; process cases under Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under various PPP schemes of the Government of India.

As per its terms of reference, the Cell will appraise the project reports, DPRs costing more than Rs 10 crore (or as deemed fit by the government); carry out Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) or Return on Investment (ROI) of the project and will provide assistance in engagement of project specific Transactional Advisor, as per requirement.

The order, issued on January 27, 2023, had mentioned that, the actual filling of positions in PPCPA would be on the basis of project requirement and manpower support received from NITI Aayog and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Government of India from time to time.

“With a team leader and MIS Network manager, PPCPA will have ten domain experts related to urban development; procurement; infrastructure (support personnel); planning cum housing; transport; industries cum tourism; social sector; finance and appraisal; Public Private Partnership (PPP) and environment,” it had specified.