Successful Execution holds the key to certainty of India fulfilling its infrastructure needs

The Meinhardt Group, a global integrated engineering consulting firm, on a consecutive year partnered with FICCI for the 4th Edition of the India Infrastructure Summit-2012. The theme of this year's Summit was 'accelerating implementation of infrastructure projects'. The India Infrastructure Summit was held on 31st August, 2012 at FICCI Federation House, New Delhi.

It is the largest platform for policy debate relating to infrastructure sector in India and it brings together Government, policy makers, regulatory authorities, infrastructure developers, construction companies, financial institutions and other stakeholders to deliberate and share their experiences for building world class infrastructure.

The Summit was addressed by distinguished speakers including Dr. C P Joshi, Hon'ble Minister for Road Transport & Highways; Mr. Hemant Kanoria, Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Infrastructure; Mr. B K Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission; Mr A K Upadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India; Mr N Muruganandam, Joint Secretary (Ports), Ministry of Shipping, Government of India.

Dr. Joshi, Minister for Road Transport & Highways addressed that 'The targets which the Government has set for this sector are ambitious but it has in the recent past surpassed earlier performance emphatically. This year the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has planned to award 9,500 Kilometres of National Highways for widening and Upgradation. This can only be achieved when we synergize our efforts in a positive and pro-active manner.

According to Mr. Rajesh Srivastava, Managing Director for Meinhardt India "Setting ambitious target are the preliminary steps but successful execution of these projects simply holds the key to certainty. The present focus should be on making long term plans to de-bottleneck the obstacles, ensure a transparency in the process, capacity building to evaluate the mega sized projects and avoid delays in decisions and payments which rampant interruption in the overall project implementation. . This Summit hence, is an effort to increase awareness among the industry participant on the obstacles and challenges faced in implementation of infrastructure projects".

Dr. Joshi further added that The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure has recently accorded its approval to the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) Contract document. This mode of execution would ensure implementation of the road projects to specified standards with a fair degree of certainty relating to costs and time while transferring the design and construction risks to the contractors.

The key issues such as the roadblocks to achieving infrastructure goals, Indian railway lagging behind in infrastructure development, mounting pressure on handling port traffic and need to strengthen our national highways were address through this year's summit. In the last four years the summit has acted as a catalyst between the industry and the Government of India, enabling to eliminate several obstacles and challenges faced by the global players in the infrastructure sector.

Meinhardt's association with the summit will further reinforce its leadership position in the Indian Infrastructure Industry as the top international multidisciplinary engineering consultancy firm providing world class services. Meinhardt, which established its presence in India in 2001, has emerged as one of the leading consulting practices providing project management and integrated engineering services in Buildings and all areas of infrastructure such as Aviation, Roads & Highways, MRTS, Water & Wastewater etc.

Source : Equity Bulls

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