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New Delhi : NITI Aayog and Quality Council of India (QCI) on October 28, 2020, launched the ‘National Program and Project Management Policy Framework’ (NPMPF), envisaged to bring radical reforms in the way infrastructure projects are executed in India.
Union Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister 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 Piyush Goyal, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, and QCI Chairman Adil Zainulbhai.
Dignitaries from across the government, infrastructure sector, global project management companies, large contracting firms such as L&T India, PSUs, global and Indian development banks, etc., also participated at the event.
Lauding the initiative, Gadkari said,”‘NPMPF will help in realising the Prime Minister’s vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat by building a stronger India, in which we would need good quality infrastructure; we would need to reduce costs and waste material, without compromising on the environment and ecology. We also need to ensure time-bound and result-oriented delivery of projects.”
Recognizing the significance of program and project management tools and techniques for mega projects like Bharatmala and Sagarmala, which are already in use, he added, ‘The use and adoption of such techniques and practices to incorporate innovative financing with hybrid annuity models are already underway.”
Gadkari also stressed on accountability, monitoring, transparency and a corruption-free system, along with a fast-track decision-making process. “We need to find out ground reality problems, work on technical and financial qualifications, and ensure performance audit,” he said, according to a PIB release. He appreciated the importance of InBoK to serve as a common reference for all practitioners of the industry.
Railways, Commerce and Industry, and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush 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,” Goyal said.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant led the inaugural address emphasising on the significance of challenges to infrastructure in India and the importance of program and project management in addressing those.
India will require an investment of around $4.5 trillion by 2040 to develop the infrastructure for sustaining its economic growth. Therefore, along with numerous initiatives by the Government 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.
This framework aims to formulate radical reforms in the way large and mega infrastructure projects are managed in India, with an action plan to:
- Adopt a program and project management approach to infra development
- Institutionalise and promote the profession of program and project management and build a workforce of such professionals,
- Enhance institutional capacity and capability of professionals