The procedure of evaluating public-private partnerships in projects: lessons from three seaports projects in India

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) offers many potential advantages for the government in providing infrastructure facilities. However, the implementation of PPP projects has not been easy. This article aims to study the implementation of PPP seaport projects in India. On the basis of cross-case analyses with three units of analysis: 1) Management of PPP project process; 2) financial viability analysis; and 3) value for money analysis. Four patterns are identified from three case projects. The first pattern shows that independent regulators (e.g. the Tariff Authority for Major Ports) played an important role in protecting lenders‘ interest by scrutinising the capital expenditure of port terminals for the purpose of tariff setting. The second is that unrealistic traffic projections result in cancellation of tendering and create tariff setting issues in the subsequent operation phase. The third pattern shows that poor project preparation at the pre-bid stage leads to prolonged negotiations and delays in financial closure. And the fourth pattern shows that three cases have successfully demonstrated the ability to deliver value for money in terms of time efficiency, cost overrun anticipation, traffic performance, attractive interest rates and tenor of debt. On the basis of these findings, the authors offer a number of suggestions to improve the quality and effectiveness of the evaluation procedure for PPP seaport projects.