"Eighteen different road, port and power projects are under preparation, with a few of them already having been commissioned, which could trail a new blaze in the field of highly needed infrastructure development in the country," said Atanu Chakraborty, IBDG's CEO. "On an average, there will be an investment of Rs 20 billion minimum each year for next three years," he said.

Chakraborty said although non-resident Indian (NRI) investments were absent from large projects, afew foreign companies were in the process of negotiating joint sector deals with firms in Gujarat. For instance, British company PowerGen will be taking over Gtech; Essar is negotiating with Marathon, a US-based company; and GPPL is in league with the Singapore Port Authority (PSA) for the Pipavav port project. Chakraborty said the novelty of projects was the policy "to share the financial and material risks with private builders--a public-private partnership. This concept is not just on paper anymore. We have institutionalised it by framing a law called The Gujarat Infrastructure Development Ordinance, 1999." "In such partnerships, we have emphasised that mutual trust will be a primary factor. It will also reduce all kinds of uncertainties in a given project. Rate of return, alertness in preventing interest accumulation on invested capital and modernised technology will be given top priority in each project," Chakraborty said.

Already commissioned projects are the GPPL Pipavav port on the Saurashtracoastline, the first ever privately developed modern port facility in India; and a new port at Mundra, Kutch, built by J.V.C. Viz. Gujarat Adani Port Ltd. Projects which are likely to take off soon are the Dahej chemical port terminal, being developed by Petronet LNG; Maroli-Umargaon, being developed by the Natel Co.-Unocal consortium; and the Dholera port construction, being undertaken by JK White Cement.

So far 14 locations in existing ports along a 1,600 km-long coastline have been thrown open to private investment. "The government will keep its proper equity share so as to make sure that projects take off and risks are shared," said Chakraborty. The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) has also come out with a BOOT policy (build, own, operate, transfer) which stipulates synchronisation with hinterland development and a BOOT period of 30 years among other things, according to GMB's CEO and vice- chairman.

Total investment from 1995 to 1999 in the port sector was Rs 50.56 billion, with a target of Rs 100billion by 2001 as well as money for back-up infrastructure like roads and railways connected to new ports. GMB will hold equity in all private ports. Talking about the power sector, Chakraborty said 3,500 mw of power production was in the pipeline, out of which 2,000 mw of energy production was being undertaken by Gtech (Torrents) and Essar.

In the road sector, GIDB claims four new modern roadways have been commissioned and five, out of the nine privatised road projects, were in n advanced stage of completion. The Hazira-Ichhapur road and a new bridge on the Narmada river were among the commissioned projects. Chakraborty said, "There will be no more free lunches and new, privately built roads will have their toll posts to make vehicles pay tax." A World Bank study indicated that one per cent increase in infrastructure stock could increment the gross domestic product (GDP) by one per cent. Gujarat has been hoping to achieve such advances in infrastructure.

Gujarat was the first state in India thatobtained direct funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and was the first to take up ventures like formation of the Electricity Regulatory Commission, Road Development Corporation (a road toll company) and also a Gujarat City Development Corporation.