PPP projects catch US delegation eye

The Public Private partnership projects of Uttar Pradesh Government, especially expressways, civil aviation and power have attracted interest of US India Business Council (USIBC), the delegation of which met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and senior officials of the state Government on Friday. A presentation about the upcoming new projects in the state was made before the delegation. They also expressed interest in compressed and piped natural gas network which the government plans to establish in 21 cities across the state.

The delegation, led by chairman of USIBC, Ajay Banga and president Ron Somers, has invited Akhilesh to visit US in the month of January to interact with the entrepreneurs, following which a delegation of entrepreneurs from the US would visit Uttar Pradesh in the month of March with specific proposals for investment across state.

"We are very impressed by the bold initiatives of the UP government to develop infrastructure and fresh policy interventions for improving the business environment here. The youthful and dynamic leadership of the chief minister holds enormous promise to awaken American companies' interest in Uttar Pradesh," Ron Somers said in an official statement.

Sources inform that apart from the proposed Lucknow-Agra expressway, the delegation also took keen interest in the Agra Airport project as well as in supplying of power plant equipments. Since foreign companies cannot directly participate in the Public Private Partnership projects, they were told that they can apply for the tenders through Special Purpose Vehicles along with companies which have previous experience of working in India.

The delegation also expressed interest of the US companies to invest in modernisation of defence and security sector in the state and informed that some of the companies are already registered under Defence Offset Policy of Government of India and informed that US companies can invest in modernisation of police through IT-based facilities.

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