[caption id="attachment_18173" align="alignnone" width="301"] Raghav Chandra IAS: Chairman NHAI[/caption] National Highway Authority of India Chairman Raghav Chandra has called for defining the parameters that could be considered to decide whether a project is worth taking up on a PPP basis. "Is significant investment required and are funds available with the government? Can the financial outlay be recouped through user charges? Is there an opportunity for efficiency gains through construction and operation? These are some of the yardsticks to be considered while choosing projects on a PPP basis," he said addressing an infrastructure seminar. Pointing out that maintaining service level standards is a big part of implementing PPP projects, he said he has seen even jails being operated in Switzerland on public-private partnership, where service levels are defined. Even service level for food served to convicts is defined, and is handled by the private sector. "Today, under the public-private partnership, we have build-operate-transfer (toll), BOT-annuity, and hybrid annuity model (HAM) projects" without the service level being defined, Chandra added. Deepak Chatterjee, Deputy Managing Director, IIFCL, also called for a focus on service delivery to citizens, adding that it requires regulatory teeth. SB Nayar, CMD, IIFCL, said the then Planning Commission did not want to bring any change in the model concession agreement. Nayar was part of Kelkar Committee, which had recommended building in renegotiation flexibility in PPP projects. Sanjeev Kaushik, Deputy Managing Director, IIFCL, stressed the need to ensure continuity in the stance of State governments during the change of governments.