Undue delay in paying the annuity payments to Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd, (TRDCL), concessionaire of City Road Improvement Project (TCRIP), is likely to hit the repair and maintenance of the 42 km of roads developed into international standards in the capital.
Over ₹30 crore is due from the government towards the annuity payment for 2017 and 2018 and restoration charges of the CRIP corridors dug up for laying cables of utility agencies and rectifying leaks in drinking water lines of the Kerala Water Authority.
The ₹450-crore TCRIP is the maiden Public Private Partnership (PPP) project in the country for urban infrastructure (city roads) development with participation of the State and the private sector. As per the PPP norms, the government has to pay ₹36 crore annually as annuity to the TRDCL for 15 years.
The TRDCL, the Special Purpose Vehicle for the Build-Operate- Transfer (BOT) project under IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd., sources funds on government guarantee from a consortium of banks for concession and for meeting the day-to-day expenses.
“With the annuity payment getting delayed, banks have stopped giving funds to the TRDCL. The IL&FS, the mother company, is also not in a position to infuse funds. This is likely to hit the repair and maintenance of the CRIP corridors,’ sources told The Hindu.
Treasury cheque
Close to half of the pending amount released through a Treasury cheque to the TRDCL has not been cleared even after a month. Using Treasury cheque for paying annuity for PPP project is not the basis on which funding is extended to concessionaire, it has been pointed out.
In the Phase I project of 14.26 km completed in 2006, the payment of ₹12 crore as annuity began in 2008 and will go on till 2023.
In the Phase II of 15.7 km, the annual annuity payment is ₹13.8 crore. ₹ 6.6 crore is for the 9-km Phase II and ₹ 3.8 crore, for the 3-km Phase IV.
The last tranche of annuity payment will go on till 2031 as the last CRIP corridor was certified only in 2016.
The Concessioning authority, Kerala Road Fund Board functioning under the Public Works Department (PWD), was not available for comment.
TCRIP, an iconic project, was one of the 12 projects that had figured in Agenda in the PPP Forum of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) held in the UN Headquarters, Geneva in 2016.
The TCRIP has been replicated in five districts in the State.