US-India Ceo Forum

8220;Of the proposed 500 billion investment, nearly 70 per cent would come from the public sector and the balance from the private sector. Financing such investment is critical, said Chidambaram, adding, 8220;India has adopted various models to raise investments, wherein the Railways have opened up container traffic for the private sector. Similarly, the investments in ports and power are liberalised. Besides, private sector investment is allowed in greenfield airports projects, while the public-private participation model is adopted for the upgradation of airports of Mumbai and Delhi. The Airports Authority of India has also chalked out a plan for the upgradation of 25 non-metro airports.8221;

He urged US firms to invest in the power sector as the government plans to add 78,000 mw of additional capacity by 2012. The minister said that the country plans 9 ultra mega power projects with a capacity of 4,000 mw each. Of these, the Sasan and Mundra projects have already been handed over to project developers while financial bids for the Krishnapatnam project has been received and requests for qualification would be submitted by bidders by the second week of November.

However, the FM noted there were hardly any US firms participating in the bidding. He suggested that US companies, though not keen to take part in the engineering and construction of UMPPs, could tap oppurtunities by financing projects.