Public Private Partnership (PPP) Cell in Railway

 Public Private Partnership (PPP) Cell in Railway

I. PPP Cell works as an expert advisory and internal consultancy group within the Railway Board for all matters involving Public Private Partnership. Specifically it will:-

a) Identify potential activities/projects to be taken up through PPP with advantage to IR.

b) Assist and advise Nodal Directorates and Zonal Railways in developing and executing PPP projects.

c) Recommend appropriate structures for PPP and lay down detailed procedures on the subject for IR, closely following Finance Ministry and Planning Commission policy guidelines and directives.

d) Interact with state governments, government agencies including Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance and Private Sector/Industry Bodies in the matter of development/fine-tuning of PPP policy for Railways.

e) Disseminate PPP policies/guidelines to Nodal directorates/Zonal Railways.

f) Coordinate with DEA, Planning Commission and PPP-AC for approval of PPP projects, if and when required.

g) Examine Legal/structuring issues in respect of PPP projects of RVNL and issues pertaining to Viability Gap Funding (VGP) in consultation with concerned Directorates.

h) In addition, CRB may assign any other work or responsibility to the PPP cell from time to time.

2. In order to discharge the above responsibilities, PPP cell would take the help of a panel of standing consultants, to be appointed with the approval of Board.

3. The assistance to be rendered by the PPP cell would be in the nature of providing a panel of Standing Consultants, development of standardized concession/contract document/procedures and capability building on Indian Railways in the matter of PPP. Specifically the PPP cell shall assist the Nodal Directorates/Zonal Railways in:-

1. Procurement of consultancy services for the project, if necessary;

2. Definition of the service outcomes/end results to be procured;

3. Development of the risk allocation matrix by seeking advice of expert bodies /competent advisories on the matter;

4. Bidding procedures, parameters, documents and evaluation criteria with the clearance of Board, Finance Ministry, Planning Commission, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Law;

5. Development and standardization of requisite documents such as Shareholder’s Agreement, Concession Agreement, O&M Agreement etc, with the approval of Finance Ministry / Planning Commission / Ministry of Commerce/ Ministry of Law and where necessary with approval of Cabinet;

6. For Bid evaluation, an Officer of the PPP cell will be in the tender committee if tender is floated by the Board. In case, a tender is floated by a Zonal Railway, one officer of PPP cell will be in the Appreciation Committee of the Railway Board.

7. Capacity building in the matter of PPP.

Note:- The executive responsibility would be that of Nodal Directorates and the Zonal Railways. The Nodal Directorates and Zonal Railways would continue to identify projects for PPP. However, for synergetic and coherent development of such projects, they would inform the PPP cell and seek the advice of the Cell from time to time, In the course of identification and development of PPP projects by the PPP cell, the cell would involve the Nodal Directorates throughout the process to ensure that the Nodal Directorates contribute effectively in shaping the outline of the project and taking up the project for execution.