Introducing a new phase of Private-Public Partnership (PPP) model in Industrial infrastructure development in Punjab, the State Government has started delegating its powers in private hands, at least, in the field of industrial infrastructure development and upkeep.
Bringing down the Government’s role to the minimum in the maintenance of industrial infrastructure, industries department has started constituting SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) of industrial zones. These SPVs would be entrusted with the work of infrastructure development and upkeep of existing infrastructure in the concerned industrial zones.
An official of the Industries department said the SPVs would collect property tax from the industrial zone and they would be authorised to spend the money as per their infrastructure related requirements.
He said that under the industrial development plan, Central Government has been giving 60 per cent grant for projects of industrial infrastructure development. The rest 40 per cent is to be given by the State and the industrialists in equal proportion.
Under the new scheme, Punjab Government has decided to transfer the powers of collecting property tax from the industrial areas to the SPVs, the money would be taken as the Governments share in the projects of industrial infrastructure development.
Principal Secretary of the Industries department, Anirudh Tiwari said that the scheme has been evolved to give a long term solution of the infrastructural issues to the industries in the state. He said that now the SPVs registered with the Government will decide on the projects of infrastructural development and their upkeep.
Government has deputed infrastructural consultants to guide these SPVs on the technical issues related with infrastructure development and their upkeep. He said that the registration of SPVs has been started and 2 SPVs have been registered, while around a dozen are expected to be registered within a fortnight.
The development is significant as poor industrial infrastructure and poor upkeep of the industrial zones has remained a big hindrance in the industrial development in the state.
With the new scheme, the industrialists would get directly involved in the maintenance of the infrastructure in their industrial estates and the collection of property tax would be better as the industrialists won’t mind giving money for the upkeep of their own area.
Appreciating the initiative, S C Ralhan, an industrialist from ludhiana said that this scheme will have far reaching impact on the industrial infrastructure development in the state. He said that now the owners of the industries, would be able to maintain the infrastructure of the area and the issues related with maintenance of roads and power supply or security would be better handled.