Sustainability of Indian PPP procurement process: Development of strategies for enhancement

Abstract

Purpose

Though public-private partnership (PPP) programme in India has stabilized significantly with implementation of successful infrastructure projects, still it suffers from shortfalls related to some aspects of sustainable development. One of the ways to overcome these shortfalls is to modify the existing PPP procurement process in order to attain the sustainable development goals. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework highlighting the strategies for integrating sustainable development principles in PPP procurement process.

Design/methodology/approach

Content analysis through literature review has been adopted to identify the shortfalls in PPP process and examine the possible strategies to overcome the shortfalls from best practices in implementation of PPP projects. The preliminary framework of strategies has been conceptualized to integrate sustainable development principles in PPP procurement process. Finally, the feasibility of preliminary framework has been undertaken through focussed interviews with local stakeholders of PPPs.

Findings

The study indicates opportunities to promote sustainable development in the current PPP procurement process exists through enhancement in critical aspects like stakeholder’s participation, environment impact assessment, value for money analysis, user’s charges, risk allocation policies, transaction and bidding cost, and bid evaluation criteria.

Originality/value

The paper presents a critical insight on integrating sustainable development principles in PPP procurement process which has not been the focus in the majority of previous research studies.

Citation

Patil, N.A. and Laishram, B.S. (2016), "Sustainability of Indian PPP procurement process: Development of strategies for enhancement", Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. 6 No. 5, pp. 491-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-09-2015-0043