Infrastructure Fund For State Govts: FM

The apathy of state governments toward infrastructure development prompted the Centre to announce a Rs 100 crore corpus to help them in preparatory work of projects coming up with public-private participation. It would be a revolving fund that will get replenished from successfully bid projects. In case it needs to be topped up, it would be topped up through budgetary support, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at a conference of Chief Secretaries on Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The fund, to be called India Infrastructure Project Development Fund, would bear up to 75 per cent of development costs of projects till the bidding stage, he said. If the bidding is successful, the amount given to states would be treated as interest free loans and in case the exercise fails, the assistance would be converted into grant. In case of successful bidding, the money would be recovered from those who get the contract, he said.