Dr Tharun Dolla | Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (original) (raw)

Papers by Dr Tharun Dolla

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series A

Recent Advancements in Civil Engineering, 2021

Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 2021

Purpose The most recent advent of the unsolicited proposal in the public private partnership mode... more Purpose The most recent advent of the unsolicited proposal in the public private partnership mode of infrastructure procurement has changed the duties and roles of private and public sector agencies. Also, they have increased the practitioners' difficulties to work out strategic mechanisms and methods to manage these unsolicited proposals (USP) effectively. So, this study aims to understand how well equipped are the Indian USP guidelines for managing procurement. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis with coding procedures was carried to understand the regulations of USP frameworks of India over the four stages of USP procurement. Findings The findings show that there are severe flaws in various states' frameworks. The states have flaws in their policies in implementation features across the stages of USP such as defined objectives, the absence of fees and review timeframes in the submission, time frame and guidance on benchmarking and market testing in evaluation and...

Urbanization Challenges in Emerging Economies, 2018

Infrastructure procured through public-private partnership (PPP) delivery model has bundling of p... more Infrastructure procured through public-private partnership (PPP) delivery model has bundling of project activities as the prime motivation in contract framing. But the theory of bundling has not been studied with respect to the influence and subsequent behavior in network infrastructure such as water supply, sewerage projects, electricity, and solid waste management. This paper identifies and develops theoretical constructs that explain and improve the benefits intended through bundling in PPP projects in the specific context of network infrastructure. The decision to bundle the segments or rather unbundle is dependent on bringing in enough competition, the holistic expertise of bidders to the proposed project (bundle or unbundle), lender competency and extent of private investment when project finance is involved, and information asymmetries that predicts the efficiency of bundled project in the environment of contractual hazards. The developed framework would help the governments to create the right projects and harness the full potential of private sector participation.

Recent Advancements in Civil Engineering, 2021

Smart cities occupied important focus of governments across the countries in the modern world. Ho... more Smart cities occupied important focus of governments across the countries in the modern world. However, there is a need to take stock of the research carried so far to enable and direct the trajectory of future research. To this end, this study has undertaken a systematic literature review of studies published on the topic of smart cities in Scopus database in the past two decades. The findings indicated that the focus of smart cities in construction management research as has been poor. The study found that the top three journals that have published research on smart cities are Cities, Journal of Cleaner Production, and the Journal Sustainable Cities and Society. Furthermore, though Indian government is embarking with an ambitious plan of developing hundred smart cities, the current research trend to support this program has been minuscule due to dearth of studies carried in India. Thus, future research needs to focus on smart cities research with much theoretical depth and empirical adequacy concerning research gaps of smart city research globally and in India, conception of smart city concept, and smart cities for disaster/ pandemic management. Many studies exist concerning systematic literature review on smart cities research, but this study is still insightful and shows knowledge gaps concerning the status quo of research.

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series A, 2021

Unsolicited proposals (USP) are the ones where a public project/facility is identified and develo... more Unsolicited proposals (USP) are the ones where a public project/facility is identified and developed by a private entity without any formal invitation from the government. Thus, it became imperative to understand the motivations of parties and the critical success factors for effective implementation of the projects. Motivations and critical success factors for adopting unsolicited proposals are synthesised by a thorough literature review of the literature. The present study sought to adopt the 11 motivations and 11 critical success factors of USP proposed by various authors. Subsequently, questionnaire survey with 56 stakeholders is conducted, and statistical tests are performed on the perceptions on critical implementation features of USP such as regulations, competing proposals, time and cost, incentive and reward, and motivations in the USP procurement, between the public and private stakeholder groups. Findings indicate that the four significant motivations are enhancing innova...

Operations of the municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure is yet to focus on the low carbon im... more Operations of the municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure is yet to focus on the low carbon impetus though there is a growing interest of governments and research communities on this topic across the globe. This study addresses and develops propositions concerning Indian infrastructure procurement. More specifically, it draws attention to the advancement of low carbon infrastructure when using public–private partnership (PPP) mode. The findings indicate that low carbon measures can lead to low carbon pathways when the process of executing is favourable to such an agenda. There is clear and outright need to make changes in the way the PPP project is procured to support the low carbon infrastructure (LCI) projects. One such approach is by adopting the criteria for selecting the private concessionaire, appropriating the financial bidding, setting low carbon operational parameters, standards and targets even at the local/project level procurement. This conceptual framework would supp...

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021

Abstract Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been increasingly employed in the delivery of Mu... more Abstract Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been increasingly employed in the delivery of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) projects of India. Particular interest has been on the energy from waste (EfW) projects. But many projects have failed. Studies on risk management that cater to the needs of Indian MSW sector on EfW projects is still in a nascent stage for Indian PPP body of knowledge, especially from the perspective of practitioners and policymakers. Accordingly, this study assessed the risks in four EfW technologies used in MSW management projects of India. The paper identified the risk factors of Indian MSW PPP projects through a comprehensive literature review. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey and structured interviews with Indian stakeholders are carried to capture the risk magnitude and maps the results of the general perception of the risk allocation preference. The findings show that the risk profiles are very different across these four EfW technologies. So, future projects would need to specifically focus those critical risks to procure more successful and value for money from the EfW PPP projects. Governments need to appropriately weigh the risks in EfW projects to resolve how to deal with market and human factors mainly related to the PPP aspects of the public service.

Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 2020

AbstractThis paper assesses the impact of procurement strategies on the local governments’ servic... more AbstractThis paper assesses the impact of procurement strategies on the local governments’ service delivery in the context of India. The validity of the rhetorical arguments previously developed in...

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 2020

PurposeThe effect of the chosen procurement model on the contractual performance is an important ... more PurposeThe effect of the chosen procurement model on the contractual performance is an important but less researched area in governance literature. Therefore, the aim is to study the ramifications of procurement options on the contractual hazards emanating due to information asymmetry.Design/methodology/approachFour Indian MSW case studies provided the necessary evidence for the present study. Cross case analysis was conducted from the perspectives of information asymmetry, contract management skills of urban local bodies (ULBs), and uncertainty.FindingsThe findings suggest that bundling of MSW supply chain would increase the uncertainty of the project, and that contract management skills have a detrimental effect but more in a bundled project. Accordingly, occurrences of information asymmetry and related contractual hazards are more in bundled projects.Practical implicationsThe present understanding of the ULBs is not realistic enough to consider the full complexity of the strategi...

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 2019

Purpose The performance of public–private partnership (PPP) projects depends on how the project h... more Purpose The performance of public–private partnership (PPP) projects depends on how the project has been structured. The traditional PPP option analysis for structuring project scope and size relating to the bundling of functions concerning a single component of the value chain will need to be extended to handle multi-component sectors such as municipal solid waste (MSW) in formulating the project scope. This analysis is currently missing in the extant literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Through a comprehensive literature review as the methodological backbone, this study develops a testable holistic framework for the procurement of MSW PPP projects that examines how various factors of bundling affect the performance of the PPP projects. Findings Using transaction cost economics, agency and auction theories, the review identifies that innovation, maturity, quality specifiability, scope, competition, information asymmetries and transaction a...

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2019

PurposeBundled mode of public–private partnership (PPP) procurement has been a widely advocated g... more PurposeBundled mode of public–private partnership (PPP) procurement has been a widely advocated governance structure of infrastructure delivery. The purpose of this paper is to identify the various aspects of how this bundling phenomenon has to be played out in practice and examines the implications of such decisions.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal case study with an Indian municipal solid waste (MSW) PPP project provides the necessary evidence on the identification of constructs which are deemed important in the decision making of bundling in PPP MSW projects. Transaction cost economics theory, agency theory and auction theory informed the development of theoretical constructs. The longitudinal case study used interviews, observations and documents analysis.FindingsThis study has highlighted the complexity inherent in bundling decision, arising out of the relatively scanty rationale by which stakeholders first developed. Not only they are very different from the practice,...

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 2018

Purpose The Low carbon (LC) agenda has captured interest across governments and research communit... more Purpose The Low carbon (LC) agenda has captured interest across governments and research communities. But such focus is not addressed so far in the operation of municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure in India. The purpose of this paper is to draw focus on the promotion of low carbon infrastructure by improving the procurement process of the public–private partnership (PPP) approach. Design/methodology/approach The current study employed a case study methodology. This paper develops and validates a “five-fold framework,” comprising of selection, financial, operational, standards and targets measures, for integrating LC principles in the procurement of infrastructure projects. Findings The public sector fails to understand the importance of the need to incorporate climate change mitigation strategies due to poor procurement competencies. With respect to the operationalization of the framework, funding of viability gap in operations instead of construction, allowing renegotiation c...

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series A, 2019

Public-private partnership mode of infrastructure procurement has entered into the municipal soli... more Public-private partnership mode of infrastructure procurement has entered into the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) projects of late. Among various governance issues, the choice between the two governance options, i.e., to bundle or unbundle the MSWM supply chain concerning the PPP concession, is a tough task for public organizations. This is not addressed so far in the extant literature. The current paper, while arguing this problem, posits that the network governance approach and usage of organizational theories would hold a promising theoretical framework in formulating and understanding the aforesaid governance choice. Based on the conceptualization of this paper, future research can ground the framework for bundling problem formulations on the established and prominent theories of economics, organization, and procurement, namely transaction cost theory, agency theory, and auction theory.

Construction Economics and Building, 2019

Prequalification (PQ) is a significant process in the selection of private sector for the deliver... more Prequalification (PQ) is a significant process in the selection of private sector for the delivery of civil infrastructure projects. But, the extant literature, for the most part, focused on PQ of construction projects. The need for setting proper PQ, i.e., criteria and corresponding limits in public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects, especially municipal solid waste (MSW) projects is still a lacuna in the body of knowledge of Indian PPPs. To this end, this paper identified PQ criteria using content analysis of the sample of MSW projects. These identified criteria were subjected to regression modeling. These results were compared with the results of well-matured highway sector to draw comparison with MSW projects. The practical implications are that urban local bodies (ULBs) are but less competent and less uniform in the rationale of setting the PQ criteria and limits. This paper suggests that lowering the technical and financial PQ limits considering the market...

MATEC Web of Conferences, 2017

Cities are one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change poses seriou... more Cities are one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change poses serious threat to urban infrastructure, quality of life, and entire urban systems. Cities need to adopt an integrated approach for improvement of city services in order to adapt to climate change and reduce their greenhouse emissions. However, the magnitude of investment required to bridge the widening infrastructure service provision demand-supply gap along with the additional investment to mitigate climate change demands the need to look for innovative financing solutions. Private investments through public private partnership (PPP) route offer an innovative mechanism for meet both the goals of infrastructure development and climate change mitigation. Private parties in PPP, however, focuses on the project economics only though they have the potential to provide innovative technical, financial and managerial solutions. The paper aims to answer the question how to integrate climate change mitigation objective in procurement process of PPP projects. The study has focused only on PPP projects in Municipal Solid Waste Management sector. The integration of climate change mitigation objective has been through design of a modified procurement protocol which promote private sector to devise project structure that fulfil both the objectives of climate change mitigation and provision of quality infrastructure services.

International Journal of Construction Management, 2019

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management has been a crucial social sector and is part of millennium... more Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management has been a crucial social sector and is part of millennium development goals. Government of India started to use public-private partnerships for this infrastructure provision but without knowing the rationale of its adoption. To this end, this study purposes to draw lessons on factors affecting PPP preference in Indian MSW sector. Questionnaire survey and interviews with the stakeholders of the PPP project provided the data for analysis. Factor analysis technique on the survey data resulted in four components each for attractive and negative factors. The findings suggest that MSW services primarily and importantly procured because of the PPP mode is more favoured on account of the dire need of MSW services in India and benefits. But, stakeholders perceived that PPP caused unfavourable results such as failed projects, high transaction costs, and overexploitation by the private sector. They attributed this negativity to the inappropriate procurement process. Hence, deliberation of the attractive factors and devising strategies to overcome the negative factors will help the public sector to successfully adopt PPP in MSW sector and to frame policies for the procurement of MSW projects through PPP route. This work is novel for providing sector-specific nuances.

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 2021

PurposeEffective maintenance of rural roads is an essential aspect of public infrastructure deliv... more PurposeEffective maintenance of rural roads is an essential aspect of public infrastructure delivery. However, governments failed to upkeep the built infrastructure. Accordingly, this study addresses this pressing issue by identifying attributes, skills and resources for asset maintenance. To do this, collaborative governance, a recent plausible alternative in the public policy literature, is used.Design/methodology/approachThe literature review proffered 29 strategies for operationalising collaborative governance principles. A questionnaire survey with the public sector representatives comprising top-level, mid-level and lower-level engineers was used to test the applicability of these strategies in rural infrastructure maintenance of India. The rated responses concerning strategies were subjected to exploratory factor analysis to determine the underlying structure for reducing the dimensions to make them practically operational.FindingsThe exploratory factor analysis showed that s...

Handbook of Development Policy

Transportation Research Procedia

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series A

Recent Advancements in Civil Engineering, 2021

Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 2021

Purpose The most recent advent of the unsolicited proposal in the public private partnership mode... more Purpose The most recent advent of the unsolicited proposal in the public private partnership mode of infrastructure procurement has changed the duties and roles of private and public sector agencies. Also, they have increased the practitioners' difficulties to work out strategic mechanisms and methods to manage these unsolicited proposals (USP) effectively. So, this study aims to understand how well equipped are the Indian USP guidelines for managing procurement. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis with coding procedures was carried to understand the regulations of USP frameworks of India over the four stages of USP procurement. Findings The findings show that there are severe flaws in various states' frameworks. The states have flaws in their policies in implementation features across the stages of USP such as defined objectives, the absence of fees and review timeframes in the submission, time frame and guidance on benchmarking and market testing in evaluation and...

Urbanization Challenges in Emerging Economies, 2018

Infrastructure procured through public-private partnership (PPP) delivery model has bundling of p... more Infrastructure procured through public-private partnership (PPP) delivery model has bundling of project activities as the prime motivation in contract framing. But the theory of bundling has not been studied with respect to the influence and subsequent behavior in network infrastructure such as water supply, sewerage projects, electricity, and solid waste management. This paper identifies and develops theoretical constructs that explain and improve the benefits intended through bundling in PPP projects in the specific context of network infrastructure. The decision to bundle the segments or rather unbundle is dependent on bringing in enough competition, the holistic expertise of bidders to the proposed project (bundle or unbundle), lender competency and extent of private investment when project finance is involved, and information asymmetries that predicts the efficiency of bundled project in the environment of contractual hazards. The developed framework would help the governments to create the right projects and harness the full potential of private sector participation.

Recent Advancements in Civil Engineering, 2021

Smart cities occupied important focus of governments across the countries in the modern world. Ho... more Smart cities occupied important focus of governments across the countries in the modern world. However, there is a need to take stock of the research carried so far to enable and direct the trajectory of future research. To this end, this study has undertaken a systematic literature review of studies published on the topic of smart cities in Scopus database in the past two decades. The findings indicated that the focus of smart cities in construction management research as has been poor. The study found that the top three journals that have published research on smart cities are Cities, Journal of Cleaner Production, and the Journal Sustainable Cities and Society. Furthermore, though Indian government is embarking with an ambitious plan of developing hundred smart cities, the current research trend to support this program has been minuscule due to dearth of studies carried in India. Thus, future research needs to focus on smart cities research with much theoretical depth and empirical adequacy concerning research gaps of smart city research globally and in India, conception of smart city concept, and smart cities for disaster/ pandemic management. Many studies exist concerning systematic literature review on smart cities research, but this study is still insightful and shows knowledge gaps concerning the status quo of research.

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series A, 2021

Unsolicited proposals (USP) are the ones where a public project/facility is identified and develo... more Unsolicited proposals (USP) are the ones where a public project/facility is identified and developed by a private entity without any formal invitation from the government. Thus, it became imperative to understand the motivations of parties and the critical success factors for effective implementation of the projects. Motivations and critical success factors for adopting unsolicited proposals are synthesised by a thorough literature review of the literature. The present study sought to adopt the 11 motivations and 11 critical success factors of USP proposed by various authors. Subsequently, questionnaire survey with 56 stakeholders is conducted, and statistical tests are performed on the perceptions on critical implementation features of USP such as regulations, competing proposals, time and cost, incentive and reward, and motivations in the USP procurement, between the public and private stakeholder groups. Findings indicate that the four significant motivations are enhancing innova...

Operations of the municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure is yet to focus on the low carbon im... more Operations of the municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure is yet to focus on the low carbon impetus though there is a growing interest of governments and research communities on this topic across the globe. This study addresses and develops propositions concerning Indian infrastructure procurement. More specifically, it draws attention to the advancement of low carbon infrastructure when using public–private partnership (PPP) mode. The findings indicate that low carbon measures can lead to low carbon pathways when the process of executing is favourable to such an agenda. There is clear and outright need to make changes in the way the PPP project is procured to support the low carbon infrastructure (LCI) projects. One such approach is by adopting the criteria for selecting the private concessionaire, appropriating the financial bidding, setting low carbon operational parameters, standards and targets even at the local/project level procurement. This conceptual framework would supp...

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021

Abstract Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been increasingly employed in the delivery of Mu... more Abstract Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been increasingly employed in the delivery of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) projects of India. Particular interest has been on the energy from waste (EfW) projects. But many projects have failed. Studies on risk management that cater to the needs of Indian MSW sector on EfW projects is still in a nascent stage for Indian PPP body of knowledge, especially from the perspective of practitioners and policymakers. Accordingly, this study assessed the risks in four EfW technologies used in MSW management projects of India. The paper identified the risk factors of Indian MSW PPP projects through a comprehensive literature review. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey and structured interviews with Indian stakeholders are carried to capture the risk magnitude and maps the results of the general perception of the risk allocation preference. The findings show that the risk profiles are very different across these four EfW technologies. So, future projects would need to specifically focus those critical risks to procure more successful and value for money from the EfW PPP projects. Governments need to appropriately weigh the risks in EfW projects to resolve how to deal with market and human factors mainly related to the PPP aspects of the public service.

Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 2020

AbstractThis paper assesses the impact of procurement strategies on the local governments’ servic... more AbstractThis paper assesses the impact of procurement strategies on the local governments’ service delivery in the context of India. The validity of the rhetorical arguments previously developed in...

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 2020

PurposeThe effect of the chosen procurement model on the contractual performance is an important ... more PurposeThe effect of the chosen procurement model on the contractual performance is an important but less researched area in governance literature. Therefore, the aim is to study the ramifications of procurement options on the contractual hazards emanating due to information asymmetry.Design/methodology/approachFour Indian MSW case studies provided the necessary evidence for the present study. Cross case analysis was conducted from the perspectives of information asymmetry, contract management skills of urban local bodies (ULBs), and uncertainty.FindingsThe findings suggest that bundling of MSW supply chain would increase the uncertainty of the project, and that contract management skills have a detrimental effect but more in a bundled project. Accordingly, occurrences of information asymmetry and related contractual hazards are more in bundled projects.Practical implicationsThe present understanding of the ULBs is not realistic enough to consider the full complexity of the strategi...

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 2019

Purpose The performance of public–private partnership (PPP) projects depends on how the project h... more Purpose The performance of public–private partnership (PPP) projects depends on how the project has been structured. The traditional PPP option analysis for structuring project scope and size relating to the bundling of functions concerning a single component of the value chain will need to be extended to handle multi-component sectors such as municipal solid waste (MSW) in formulating the project scope. This analysis is currently missing in the extant literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Through a comprehensive literature review as the methodological backbone, this study develops a testable holistic framework for the procurement of MSW PPP projects that examines how various factors of bundling affect the performance of the PPP projects. Findings Using transaction cost economics, agency and auction theories, the review identifies that innovation, maturity, quality specifiability, scope, competition, information asymmetries and transaction a...

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2019

PurposeBundled mode of public–private partnership (PPP) procurement has been a widely advocated g... more PurposeBundled mode of public–private partnership (PPP) procurement has been a widely advocated governance structure of infrastructure delivery. The purpose of this paper is to identify the various aspects of how this bundling phenomenon has to be played out in practice and examines the implications of such decisions.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal case study with an Indian municipal solid waste (MSW) PPP project provides the necessary evidence on the identification of constructs which are deemed important in the decision making of bundling in PPP MSW projects. Transaction cost economics theory, agency theory and auction theory informed the development of theoretical constructs. The longitudinal case study used interviews, observations and documents analysis.FindingsThis study has highlighted the complexity inherent in bundling decision, arising out of the relatively scanty rationale by which stakeholders first developed. Not only they are very different from the practice,...

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 2018

Purpose The Low carbon (LC) agenda has captured interest across governments and research communit... more Purpose The Low carbon (LC) agenda has captured interest across governments and research communities. But such focus is not addressed so far in the operation of municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure in India. The purpose of this paper is to draw focus on the promotion of low carbon infrastructure by improving the procurement process of the public–private partnership (PPP) approach. Design/methodology/approach The current study employed a case study methodology. This paper develops and validates a “five-fold framework,” comprising of selection, financial, operational, standards and targets measures, for integrating LC principles in the procurement of infrastructure projects. Findings The public sector fails to understand the importance of the need to incorporate climate change mitigation strategies due to poor procurement competencies. With respect to the operationalization of the framework, funding of viability gap in operations instead of construction, allowing renegotiation c...

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series A, 2019

Public-private partnership mode of infrastructure procurement has entered into the municipal soli... more Public-private partnership mode of infrastructure procurement has entered into the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) projects of late. Among various governance issues, the choice between the two governance options, i.e., to bundle or unbundle the MSWM supply chain concerning the PPP concession, is a tough task for public organizations. This is not addressed so far in the extant literature. The current paper, while arguing this problem, posits that the network governance approach and usage of organizational theories would hold a promising theoretical framework in formulating and understanding the aforesaid governance choice. Based on the conceptualization of this paper, future research can ground the framework for bundling problem formulations on the established and prominent theories of economics, organization, and procurement, namely transaction cost theory, agency theory, and auction theory.

Construction Economics and Building, 2019

Prequalification (PQ) is a significant process in the selection of private sector for the deliver... more Prequalification (PQ) is a significant process in the selection of private sector for the delivery of civil infrastructure projects. But, the extant literature, for the most part, focused on PQ of construction projects. The need for setting proper PQ, i.e., criteria and corresponding limits in public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects, especially municipal solid waste (MSW) projects is still a lacuna in the body of knowledge of Indian PPPs. To this end, this paper identified PQ criteria using content analysis of the sample of MSW projects. These identified criteria were subjected to regression modeling. These results were compared with the results of well-matured highway sector to draw comparison with MSW projects. The practical implications are that urban local bodies (ULBs) are but less competent and less uniform in the rationale of setting the PQ criteria and limits. This paper suggests that lowering the technical and financial PQ limits considering the market...

MATEC Web of Conferences, 2017

Cities are one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change poses seriou... more Cities are one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change poses serious threat to urban infrastructure, quality of life, and entire urban systems. Cities need to adopt an integrated approach for improvement of city services in order to adapt to climate change and reduce their greenhouse emissions. However, the magnitude of investment required to bridge the widening infrastructure service provision demand-supply gap along with the additional investment to mitigate climate change demands the need to look for innovative financing solutions. Private investments through public private partnership (PPP) route offer an innovative mechanism for meet both the goals of infrastructure development and climate change mitigation. Private parties in PPP, however, focuses on the project economics only though they have the potential to provide innovative technical, financial and managerial solutions. The paper aims to answer the question how to integrate climate change mitigation objective in procurement process of PPP projects. The study has focused only on PPP projects in Municipal Solid Waste Management sector. The integration of climate change mitigation objective has been through design of a modified procurement protocol which promote private sector to devise project structure that fulfil both the objectives of climate change mitigation and provision of quality infrastructure services.

International Journal of Construction Management, 2019

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management has been a crucial social sector and is part of millennium... more Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management has been a crucial social sector and is part of millennium development goals. Government of India started to use public-private partnerships for this infrastructure provision but without knowing the rationale of its adoption. To this end, this study purposes to draw lessons on factors affecting PPP preference in Indian MSW sector. Questionnaire survey and interviews with the stakeholders of the PPP project provided the data for analysis. Factor analysis technique on the survey data resulted in four components each for attractive and negative factors. The findings suggest that MSW services primarily and importantly procured because of the PPP mode is more favoured on account of the dire need of MSW services in India and benefits. But, stakeholders perceived that PPP caused unfavourable results such as failed projects, high transaction costs, and overexploitation by the private sector. They attributed this negativity to the inappropriate procurement process. Hence, deliberation of the attractive factors and devising strategies to overcome the negative factors will help the public sector to successfully adopt PPP in MSW sector and to frame policies for the procurement of MSW projects through PPP route. This work is novel for providing sector-specific nuances.

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 2021

PurposeEffective maintenance of rural roads is an essential aspect of public infrastructure deliv... more PurposeEffective maintenance of rural roads is an essential aspect of public infrastructure delivery. However, governments failed to upkeep the built infrastructure. Accordingly, this study addresses this pressing issue by identifying attributes, skills and resources for asset maintenance. To do this, collaborative governance, a recent plausible alternative in the public policy literature, is used.Design/methodology/approachThe literature review proffered 29 strategies for operationalising collaborative governance principles. A questionnaire survey with the public sector representatives comprising top-level, mid-level and lower-level engineers was used to test the applicability of these strategies in rural infrastructure maintenance of India. The rated responses concerning strategies were subjected to exploratory factor analysis to determine the underlying structure for reducing the dimensions to make them practically operational.FindingsThe exploratory factor analysis showed that s...

Handbook of Development Policy

Transportation Research Procedia