Patna, March 1: Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo) — the implementing agency of Shaheed Veer Kunwar Singh Azadi Park development plan — has decided to execute the project on contract after it failed to garner a single bid from any private player across the country, leading to one of the biggest setbacks to public-private partnership (PPP) schemes in Bihar.

“We did not receive a single bid from private parties for undertaking the project. On the basis of our analysis, we have come to the conclusion that the investors might have considered the risk factor to be too high to generate revenue from such a mega park project in the state capital. It is because of such reasons that a few interested firms had earlier asked us to allow them to develop commercial complex inside the park, on which we did not agree. A few others were apprehensive about the possibility of change in the government machinery in the future,” said a senior BUIDCo official.

He added: “We were of the belief that the PPP mode would be a win-win situation for both the private sector and BUIDCo. As a facilitator, BUIDCo had to provide land for the park development project to the private sector. Whereas, the private player would get rights to develop, operate and appropriate self-determined user fee for the infrastructure set up by them. Moreover, the Patna High Court has also issued directives for the development of the project and even chief minister Nitish Kumar is keen on it.”

Contrary to the plans of getting full financial contribution from private parties for the Rs 242.96-crore project, the state government would be required to cough up the entire development cost on its own.

There is also a positive outcome, as the project would now be completed within a year after commencement of work against the earlier completion period of two years.

Though BUIDCo seemed enthusiastic about the PPP scheme, it was not “good enough” for investors. Subsequently, BUIDCo is now abuzz with “damage control measures”.

“We are immediately sending a proposal to the state government to allocate funds to the tune of Rs 200 crore (actual construction cost) for the project. The funds can come from various sources, including non-planned expenditure among others,” said the BUIDCo official.

The corporation officials claimed that the work had to be executed in any case because the high court had issued directives in the past to the state government to re-develop the park.

Moreover, high-level authorities in the urban development department are in favour of allocating and releasing funds as the chief minister had also shown keen interest on the project.

The official added: “The corporation would float fresh tender for selection of a developer soon with a bidding due date of 21 days and award the contract to the selected firm(s) by the end of March. In such a case, the firm would be given a time period of not more than a year for completion of the project.”