The regulatory authority has offered a host of sops to infrastructure companies for raising funds through IPOs. It has exempted them from making the mandatory minimum public offer of 25 per cent of their securities.

The projects for which public issues are made, however, need to be appraised by development financial institution such as IDFC or IL&FS, the guidelines say. Hundred per cent book building is allowed for issues of Rs 25 crore and above.

Infrastructure companies are also allowed to freely price domestic offerings provided promoters, equipment suppliers and strategic investors subscribe to 50 per cent of the equity simultaneously at the same price or higher than the one offered to the public.

Though newnorms are intended to facilitate financing of the capital-intensive core sector projects for overall development of the sector, experts believe that the real stumbling blocks lie elsewhere.

"Funding infrastructure sector projects will not be a problem if the returns are assured," said Jairaj Purandare of Arthur Andersen. This comfort can be provided only if the party buying the services or products is financially sound, he added.

These initiatives may enlarge the investor base for infrastructure projects but can be used only if they reach the implementation stage, analysts say, wondering how many projects have actually availed of the benefits of these schemes.

"These are the secondary issues to help develop the sector, said Nitin Anandkar of Jardine Fleming, adding that the priority issue is the pace of reforms, decision-making, commitment and implementation.

For instance, in the case of the power sector, the need of the hour is rationalisation of power tariff. Unless this is achieved and subsidiesdone away with, state electricity boards (SEBs) will remain crippled financially, he said. And in this case, investors will not put their money in power projects, Anandkar added.

Relaxation in IPO norms is a positive move but it remains to be seen how many companies will opt for this, analysts say. "Basic issues related to infrastructure development which need urgent attention include firm policies, coordination in related ministries and clear guidelines," said TN Giridhar of Kotak Mahindra Securities. Apart from these guarantees, force majeure, bidding and selection procedures and agreement guidelines too need clarifications, he added.

"Fundamental issues related to financing of infrastructure projects need to be resolved first," added Purandare. "In any case, funding the equity portion is not a big constraint as the difficulty lies in arranging debt," he said.

Offering incentives, setting up committees and making promises or announcements will not draw investors to these projects any more, saidAnandkar. They will stay away unless implementation picks up speed, he said.

This apart, constant political stone-walling to the reforms process only indicates a lack of seriousness and commitment to the exercise, they add. The obvious reference is to the recent Regulatory Authority Act which went through its share of hiccups before being approved in a diluted format.