Smart infra: Modi govt’s Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor SPV+ Telangana search for foreign partners
The corporation has already held talks with technical
partners in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and Sweden, before it floats an RFQ in
June to select partners.
The corporation has already held talks with technical partners in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and Sweden, before it floats an RFQ (request for quotation) in June to select partners for specific projects. (Reuters) (FIile Photo)
The Indian government’s newly formed SPV Delhi-Mumbai
Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) has started scouting for
foreign partners in a bid to converge next generation technologies across
infrastructure sectors.
The corporation has already held talks with technical
partners in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and Sweden, before it floats an RFQ
(request for quotation) in June to select partners for specific projects.
Following the RFQ, the DMICDC would appoint a transaction adviser to finalise a
detailed project report and select partners.
While visiting the Volvo Experience Center at Gothenburg in
Sweden recently, DMICDC CEO and managing director Alkesh K Sharma told FE that
there were opportunities in developing electric and hybrid energy based
transportation in the newly conceived eight smart cities across the
Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and generating hybrid energy with a mix of
solar, biogas, wind and tidal was also a possibility. Such hybrid energy could
be transmitted through micro and mini grids in the residential zones of smart
cities and DMICDC was weighing those options, he added.
European companies like FOB Biogas, PPAM Solarcraft and Team
Maksus were already running mini and micro grid pilot projects with hybrid
power in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Volvo has already introduced hybrid
and mini buses for the European market. The Indian smart cities could be
another market for them if DMICDC agreed to incorporate infrastructure for
running hi-tech vehicles. “We will incorporate facilities in our trunk
infrastructure to run electric and hybrid buses in the smart cities,” Sharma
said after meeting Haken Agnevall, president, Volvo Bus Corporation. MG Gopal,
special chief secretary in the Telangana government, who also visited Volvo’s
Gothenburg experience center, said there were opportunities to create hi-tech
infrastructure in Telangana since the government there would have to start most
of the things from scratch.
Sharma said the first phase of developing a smart city and
investment region at Dholera in Gujarat was in the offing, entailing an
investment of `40,000 crore. The investment would be basically used for
creating trunk infrastructure,” Sharma said, adding that the project work would
take off through first constructing a `2,300-crore international airport
followed by a complete aerotropolis project.
He said DMICDC would source funds from infrastructure
financing companies like IFCL and HUDCO. The corporation would also issue land
and infra bonds to raise money.
Although Japan government is partnering with the government
of India in implementing the project, DMICDC will keep options flexible for
participation of foreign partners. “We can make outright offer of land, it can
be a leasing model depending on the type of financing the developer is looking
at. Even DMICDC can give a hand-holding support to a technological partner by
picking up majority stake in certain trunk infrastructure projects,” he added.
At an interactive session with investors at Gothenburg
organised by India Unlimited, an initiative of the Indian embassy in Sweden,
Telangana special chief secretary Gopal said, in case of selecting
technological partners, the Telangana government under its Industries
Development Enabling Act can depart from the traditional route of competitive bidding
and adopt a process of reverse bidding for unsolicited proposal. “In case the
initial proponent matches the best price proposal in the reverse bidding, the
initial proponent will be roped in as the qualified bidder,” he said, adding
that industrial projects can be started at Telangana through self-certification
and online application, which gets clearance in 15 days.
Meanwhile, Akash Passey, Volvo Buses’
vice-president-Business Region International, said Volvo would start exporting
India-made buses to Europe this year, initially on a small scale to a select
few countries. Earlier, Volvo announced its plan to export India-made buses to
Europe in 2015.
(Travel for this report was sponsored by India Unlimited, an
initiative of the Indian embassy in Sweden)