Sunday, December 31, 2006

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.

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