The question of significance
India’s infrastructure programmes largely depend on public-private partnerships (“PPPs”) to mobilise specialised expertise, capital and operational capacity for projects that serve public purposes. Models such as DBFOT, BOT, BOOT, HAM and similar arrangements distribute construction, financing, demand, operational and hand-back risks between the public authority and the private participant. The success of these models for projects depends not merely on selecting the most qualified and competitive bidder, but also, amongst others, on ensuring that the entity whose credentials secured the award remains meaningfully responsible for performance throughout the concession period.
