Zirakpur SAI Centre in assets list for monetisation pipeline project

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 28

The NITI Aayog has considered the Sports Authority of India Regional Centre, Zirakpur, as an asset for the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) project.

National Monetisation Pipeline

The National Monetisation Pipeline is Government of India’s pioneering initiative to establish a medium-term pipeline along with a roadmap for “monetisation-ready” assets. Developed in the backdrop of the unprecedented Covid-induced economic and fiscal shocks, the project lists out assets and asset classes, under various infrastructure ministries, which will be monetised over a period of time.

As per the document released by the NITI Aayog, the assets considered for monetisation during FY 2022-2025 cover two national stadiums – Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and one more national stadium to be identified later – and two SAI Regional Centres at Bengaluru and Zirakpur.

The mode of monetisation for the identified assets will be Public-Private Partnership (PPP) based concessions on Operations, Management and Development (OMD) model.

“While the award of the four assets is planned in a phased manner over FY 2022 and FY 2023, the actual capex may take place over a 3-4 year period,” read the document.

“Further, any concession fee, upfront premium and revenue share payments to authority are over and above this indicative monetisation value and will be discovered based on market testing with transaction,” it added.

The assets considered for monetisation include specific assets for which the Centre has identified specific plans towards the development of the facilities under the PPP mode. The approach has been adopted to determine the indicative monetisation value for stadium assets. The estimated capex has been considered as the approach to estimate the monetisation value.

Also, the total value of assets considered for monetisation have been estimated at Rs11,450 crore for FY 2022-2025, with capex phasing including Rs1,650 crore (2022), Rs2,100 crore (2023), Rs3,200 crore (2024) and Rs4,500 crore (2025).

“The PPP concept envisages that the selected PPP concessionaire will be given the rights for development and commercialisation of the sports facility through an OMD agreement,” said an official.

“The project structure envisages grant of a concession to a private operator to operate, maintain and augment or redevelop and upgrade the existing facilities at the stadium. As part of the concession, the private partner may be granted development rights at the site subject to compliance with applicable local laws,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the local SAI office has not received any kind of official communication in this regard.

“We have not received information in this regard and are not even aware of it. If the government is planning, it must be an advantageous project for local sportspersons,” said an official.

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