Looking to transform the way infrastructure projects are executed in India, NITI Aayog and Quality Council of India (QCI) have launched the ‘National Program and Project Management Policy Framework’ (NPMPF), which will work to bring radical reforms in the segment. Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari unveiled the Indian Infrastructure Body of Knowledge (InBoK), a book on the practice of program and project management in India, and launched the framework, along with Union Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways Piyush Goyal, NITI Aayog VC Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant, and QCI Chairman Adil Zainulbhai.
Dignitaries from across the government, infrastructure sector, global project
management companies, contracting firms such as L&T India, PSUs, global and Indian development banks also participated in the event. Recognizing the significance of program and project management tools and techniques for mega projects like Bharatmala and Sagarmala, which are already in use, Gadkari said in a statement, "We need to find the problems at the grassroot level, tender processes for which technical and financial qualifications are very important to ensure time and cost savings and performance auditing is required in addition to financial audit."
Goyal touched upon the importance of infrastructure building for national development and improving the quality of life. "With Indian Railways adopting landmark reforms and mega projects in the pipeline and investment worth Rs 50 lakh crore and more by 2030, this initiative is most opportune to bring about more transparency in procurement, enabling public-private partnerships through appropriate risk-sharing and establishing robust project governance," he said.
India will require an investment of around $4.5 trillion by 2040 to develop the infrastructure for sustaining its economic growth. However, the challenges in infrastructure development that often obstruct the smooth execution of projects can be a deterrent. Therefore, along with numerous initiatives by the Government of India and guidelines advocated by NITI Aayog towards improving performance of infrastructure projects, a task force was also constituted to lay down a national program and project management policy framework. (Source: Economic Times)
