India Okays Revised Concession Pact for Projects at Ports
India's Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved amendments in the Model Concession Agreement (MCA) to make the Port Projects more investor-friendly and make investment climate in the Sector more attractive.
The amendments in the MCA envisage constitution of the Society for Affordable Redressal of Disputes - Ports (SAROD-PORTS) as dispute resolution mechanism similar to provision available in Highway Sector.
The other salient features of the revised MCA include providing exit route to developers by way of divesting their equity up to 100 per cent after completion of two years from the Commercial Operation Date(COD).
Under provision of additional land to the Concessionaire, land rent has been reduced from 200% to 120% of the applicable scale of rates for the proposed additional land.
Concessionaire would be free to deploy higher capacity equipment/facilities/technology and carry out value engineering for higher productivity and improved utilization and/or cost saving of Project assets.
The amendments have been proposed keeping in view the experience gained in managing PPP projects in port sector during the last twenty years and to obviate the problems being faced on account of certain provisions in the existing MCA. The amendments in the MCA have been finalized after extensive consultation with the stakeholders.
