New Delhi, May 8: The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways wants an official to be appointed solely to handle its Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects. The ministry on Friday will propose to the Cabinet to appoint a Special Joint Secretary. "There is a proposal to appoint a Joint Secretary who will exclusively handle PPP projects. At present, the road transport department in the ministry has a JS and as of now, the nodal official for all PPP projects in the ministry is Chief Engineer. To handle all PPP projects, we should have a JS," said a senior official from the ministry.

The National Highways Authority of India will soon get a dedicated member for its PPP projects, as per the NHAI restructuring plan. All highway projects now need approval of the Public Private Partnership Projects Appraisal Committee before the NHAI can start the bidding process.

Several NHAI's projects are pending before the committee due to technical issues and the latter usually refers these back to the NHAI. Last year, several NHAI projects were stuck, as the PPPAC did not meet for several months after June 2007. It cleared a couple of projects in November 2007 when it met next. The PPPAC chaired its 14th meeting earlier this month where it cleared projects worth Rs 7,946 crore, including 10 NHAI projects. Another 11 highway projects are pending. With senior officials in the ministry and NHAI specifically handling PPP projects, it is hoped that project clearance would be expedited.