Infrastructure Consulting

Infrastructue is the sunrise sector in India. The coming decade will witness investments to the tune of 450 billion dollars in infrastructure to enable our economy to continue to grow at the scorching pace of 8%. Government of India is serious about the Infrastructure sector and is leaving no stone unturned to see that investments come in this area.
The Infrastructure sector, however, has problems of its own. The Infrastructure projects are capital intensive with long gestation periods. Long term finance is hard to get in India. Also, the viability of projects is difficult to ascertain due to difficulties in forecasting. Due to lack of transparency in policies in certain sectors, the private sector investments are hard to get by. As a result a number of specialized consulting firms have come up which provide their expertise and experience to government bodies, financial institutions and infrastructure owners, operators, builders and developers.These firms specialize in management, technical, financial and operational analysis. These consultants comprise senior professional who are experts in the fields of nfrastructure Finance and Economics, Policy Planning, Strategic Planning and Organizational Management, Systems Analysis and Forecasting and Knowledge Management and help the infrasture entities determine how best to develop infrastructure assets, optimize their assets, deliver fundamental services cost effectively, and compete more efficiently.

Policy Planning

They assist in the formulation of vision, policies, initiatives and projects that not only have tremendous strategic importance, but are economically viable and sustainable from inception and assess the need for reforms and developing policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks to enable the discharge of public responsibility for infrastructure provisioning in an environment of increasing private participation.

Process Streamlining

Assist clients in overcoming the environmental, statutory, political, and community impediments by supplying a combination of strategic, legal and regulatory advice to enable timely project delivery.

Strategic Planning

The strategic planning process offers an opportunity to confirm an agency’s mission and vision; define current conditions and prioritize issues; set performance, financial, organizational, institutional, and operational goals; develop strategies and benchmarks; and ultimately convey persuasive messages to stakeholders and the public at large

Infrastructure Finance and Economics

Consultants provides innovative economic evaluation and financing techniques to both public and private sector clients. Evaluations include the economic benefits of transportation, power and other infrastructure projects; impacts on local, regional and state economies; financial feasibility analyses; alternative approaches to state and local government finance; toll revenue studies; bond analyses; value capture and joint development studies; alternative pricing/toll structures; tariff studies for electricity supply; financial constraints/financial capacity analyses; real estate market evaluation; load forecasting and asset valuation for electricity systems; and cargo forecasting for port feasibility projects.

Systems Analysis, Evaluation and Forecasting

Good travel forecasting models and procedures are essential for sound project planning and decision making. They play a central role in identifying problems and opportunities, shaping and evaluating alternatives, identifying design standards and capacities, and quantifying environmental impacts. However, travel forecasting often represents a significant challenge because the procedures are complex, models may not have been updated recently, or issues of concern to a region’s planners and decision makers are not addressed.

Therefore, the Infrastructure Consultants provide holistic solutions to the Infrastructure projects that can guide the process of implementation from conceptualisation to commissioning.

Power Sector: Engine of Growth of the Economy

Key Statistics

- The State and Central Government sectors account for 58% and 32% of the generation capacity respectively while the private sector accounts for about 10%
- India is the third largest producer of electricity in Asia
- Total Generation Capacity of around 1,13,000 MW
- Per capita consumption of electricity at 580 kwh which is expected to rise to 1000kwh in the next 10 years
- About 56% of households have access to electricity, with the rural access being 44% and urban access about 82%
- Peak & energy shortages of 7.1% & 11.2%
- T&D losses are in the range of 18% to 62% in various States. The aggregate technical & commercial (AT&C) losses are in the range of 50% of power generation. Out of the total generated power, about 55% is billed and only about 41% is realised.

Issues plaguing the Power Sector

- inadequate power generation capacity
- lack of optimum utilisation of the existing generation capacity
- inadequate inter-regional transmission links
- inadequate and ageing sub-transmission & distribution network leading to power cuts and local failures/faults
- T&D losses, large scale theft and skewed tariff structure
- slow pace of rural electrification
- inefficient use of electricity by the end consumer
- lack of grid discipline

Targets

- Plans to augment generation capacity by 1 lakh MW by 2012 out of which 77,000 is to come up in public sector and the rest in private sector
- 50,000 MW of Renewable Energy to be developed by 2017
- Access to electricity to be available for all households in the next 5 years.
- Availability of power on demand to be fully met by 2012.
- Energy shortage and peaking shortage to be overcome by providing adequate spinning reserves.
- Reliability and quality of power to be supplied in efficient manner.
- Electricity Sector to achieve financial turnaround and commercial viability.
- Consumers’ interests to be accorded top priority

Strategy

Strategies to achieve 'Power for All':

- Power Generation Strategy with focus on an integrated approach including low cost generation, optimization of capacity utilization, controlling the input cost, optimisation of fuel mix, technology upgradation, capacity addition through nuclear and non-conventional energy sources, high priority for development of hydro power, a comprehensive project monitoring and control system
- Transmission Strategy with focus on development of National Grid including Interstate connections, Technology upgradation & optimization of transmission cost.
- Distribution strategy to achieve Distribution Reforms with focus on System upgradation, loss reduction, theft control, consumer service orientation, quality power supply commercialization, Decentralized distributed generation and supply for rural areas.
- Regulation Strategy aimed at protecting Consumer interests and making the sector commercially viable.
- Financing Strategy to generate resources for required growth of the power sector.
- Conservation Strategy to optimise the utilization of electricity with focus on Demand Side management, Load management and Technology upgradation to provide energy efficient equipment / gadgets.
- Communication Strategy for political consensus with media support to enhance the general public awareness.

Telecom Sector

Key Statistics

-The country is divided into 23 Service Areas consisting of 19 Telecom Circle Service/Metro Service Areas
-India's Telecom Network is 5th largest in the world
- 107 million subscribers
- Teledensity of 12%
- Rural Teledensity of 2%
- Urban Teledensity around 31%
- A teledensity of 22% is being targeted by the end of 2007

Issues

-Rural Telephony
-3G service
-ADC and USO(Universal Service Obligation)

Unified Licence Regime
Does away with the need to seek separate licences for offering various services such as basic telephony, cellular telephony, broadband, ILD and NLD

Unified Access Services
Unified Access Services operators are free to provide, within their area of operation, services which cover collection, carriage, transmission and delivery of voice and/or non-voice messages over Licensee’s network by using any technology.

Infrastructure and Economics

A common refrain today: Infrastructure is the backbone of our Economic growth. The country's growth in the future will depend on the infrastructure it provides. Why do we need a superior Infrastructure? Why is our Economy so dependent on it?
Infrastructure capital is the asset of a nation, a value added to its existing natural resources. The last decade has seen Indian economy growing at an average rate of above 6% next only to China, Singapore and S.Korea. A growth rate of over 8% is being targeted for the next decade. This rapid growth has been fueled by the performance of both the services and the manufacturing sectors. The country now witnesses an increase in manufacturing and exports and imports(trade) while the bull run of the services sector continues unabated.
Demand and public consumption have grown up manifolds due to both higher earnings and a numerical increase in the workforce which has lead to the factories targetting higher production. Also with the liberalization of fiscal and trade policies, our economy has been opened to the world economy and the Indian Industries now compete directly in the global markets or against the global players within the Indian markets. To remain competitive, they need strong global linkages and their products need to be competitively priced. This in effect boiles down to our enterprises requiring quick and easy access to raw materials at lower trasportation costs to reduce their input costs. Also, they need to make sure that their produce reaches the market at the earliest so as to reduce the handling and inventory costs and also to reduce the risk of obsoleteness in this highly dynamic business environment. How can we ensure that the growth and deveopment of our Industries are not hampered by the supply bottlenecks of critical services like power, transportation, availability of key raw material resources such as iron,cement etc and telecommunication. Yes, by upgrading the infrastructure which in essence refers to the critical services such as power, transport, energy, raw materials availability and communication which lend critical support to the daily operations of our industries and enterprises.
I think this gives a fair idea on why Infrastructure sector has shot into prominence in the last decade and on why our Government is commited to bring investements to the tune of 350 billion dollars into this sector in the next decade.