Anomalies in railway PPP projects'- CAG

'Anomalies in railway PPP projects'

New Delhi, July 18, 2014, DHNS:

The Com-ptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)  has found serious  irregularities Public Private Partnership (PPP)  projects of railways. 
All the projects have involvements of companies owned by reputed industrial houses like Adanis, Birlas, Jindals, Rungtas and POSCO among others and they came up at different periods ruled by Third Front,   NDA and  UPA.

The CAG has listed faults which were detrimental to the interest of Indian Railways and to the execution of the projects. These errors were made in every part-selection of private partners and share holder agreement, concession agreements, lease agreements, project execution and monitoring.

Report has pointed out that the  shareholder agreement was incomplete in case of Pipavav Railway Corporation Ltd (PRCL) at the initial stage itself as three new partners namely General Insurance Company limited,  New India Assurance Company Limited and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd, were included subsequent to signing of the Agreement.

Approval of Ministry of Finance was not obtained for taking up Viramgam Mahesana Private Ltd (VMPL)  project through Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) mode on payment of access charges.

In absence of a provision in the agreement for repayment of debt and interest liability thereon, 56 per cent of Rs. 141 crore debt is yet to be repaid by Hassan Mangalore Rail Development Corporation.