The Legal 500

Certain important legal developments in this area are set out below.

Railways

Railway Projects through PPP

The Ministry of Railways, GOI, has identified certain areas of possible execution through PPP route. These include development of world class stations, establishment of super specialty hospitals/medical colleges, setting up of manufacturing units for rolling stock, dedicated freight corridor, rail axle factory, refrigerated container factory, high speed rail corridors, high speed port connectivity, diesel multiple unit factory, optic fire cables infrastructure and multi-model logistic parks. 

Power

New Regulations for Load Dispatch Centers

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (“CERC”) has notified the final regulations for the fee and charges to be levied by the National and Regional Load Dispatch Centers under the provisions of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003. Ensuring financial autonomy is the main objective of these regulations so that they can discharge their statutory functions in an independent and non-discriminatory manner.

Power

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission Notifies Tariff Regulations for Green Power

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission ("CERC") has notified the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions for Tariff determination from Renewable Energy Sources) Regulations, 2009 ("Tariff Regulations") for electricity generated from renewable energy sources. These Tariff Regulations have been finalized keeping in view the statutory mandate to electricity regulatory commissions for promoting co-generation and generation of electricity from renewable sources of energy.

Certain recent and important legal developments in this area are set out below. New Pre-Bidding Guidelines for Public Private Partnership (“PPP”) Projects

The GOI has issued new pre-bidding guidelines for PPP projects and has removed petroleum and natural gas companies and included metro rail and logistics park companies from the definition of core sectors which could be awarded PPP projects.

Petroleum & Natural Gas (Safety in Offshore Operations) Rules, 2008

 The GOI, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has decided to notify Petroleum & Natural Gas (Safety in Offshore Operations) Rules, 2008 (“Safety Rules”), for regulation of safety in offshore oil & gas exploration, exploitation, production / drilling and matters connected therewith. The Safety Rules will be applicable to all Public Sector Undertakings (“PSUs”), Private / Joint Venture (“JV”) companies operating in territorial waters, contiguous zone, continental shelf and exclusive economic zone of India in offshore upstream oil & gas sector.

New Incentive Scheme for Solar Power Projects  The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, GOI has announced a new scheme for installation of mega watt size grid interactive solar power generation projects, up to a maximum capacity of 50 MW. Under this scheme, any registered company, as project developer, is eligible to set up solar power projects on build, own and operate basis.

The Ministry of Finance (“MoF”) has notified new guidelines which have been formulated by the Department of Economic Affairs (“DEA”), for liberal dispensation of approval of PPP projects in the infrastructure structure.  The new guidelines provide that the appraisal of PPP projects of all sectors costing more than INR 1 billion but less than INR 2.5 billion would be considered by a two member committee, comprising of the Secretary(s) of DEA and MoF. Earlier, these projects were approved by a large PPP-Appraisal Committee.  

The Government of India has issued norms for pre-qualification of bidders for public-private partnership in infrastructure sector to ensure that only the best bidder gets to develop the core sector projects.

Certain important legal developments in this area are set out below.

Road

The GOI had relaxed land acquisition norms for expeditious completion of road projects. It has brought down minimum land acquisition requirement to 50% before awarding, any project to a contractor. Earlier, agencies such as National Highways Authority of India (“NHAI”), Public Works Department (“PWD”) and Border Roads Organisation (“BRO”) were required to acquire 80% of the land before awarding contracts for road projects.

Certain important and recent legal developments in this area (including relating to policy and industry developments, as the case may be) are set out below.

Certain important and recent legal developments in this area (including relating to policy and industry developments, as the case may be) are set out below.