Water Infrastructure: Growth Driver of Indian Economy

– SUBHASH SETHI

Chairman, SPML INFRA

What were your key performance highlights during the past year?

SPML Infra being a project driven organization, everything that we do is a project — whether it’s a one-day, 10-day, six-months or year long. For us, the year 2022 was rewarding. SPML Infra received its single largest project order under ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ valued at INR 1158 Crore from Govt. of Rajasthan for Isarda Dausa Water Supply Scheme to provide clean drinking water facilities to 2.5 million people in 1256 villages and 5 towns in Dausa and Sawai Madhopur districts.

During the year, we also completed several projects including water supply scheme under ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ in Manipur that was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Manipur apart from several power substation projects in Tripura which were inaugurated by the Hon’ble Finance Minister of India and Hon’ble Chief Minister and Dy. Chief Minister of Tripura respectively. We also received the Physical Completion Certificate for Sauni 2 project in Gujarat, and Taken Over Certificate (TOC) for several power substation projects including Burdwan, Angul, and Murshidabad. We also received the arbitration award of INR 712 crore.

What is your future outlook for your company for FY23? 

The year 2023 is important as the timelines for flagship water supply scheme; Jal Jeevan Mission will be nearing the target closure. The huge financial allocation under this scheme needs to be invested in creating water supply infrastructure. For SPML Infra, there will be huge opportunities in terms of new projects coming our way while we will also expedite to complete the under execution over two dozen water projects including two large projects under Jal Jeevan Mission to provide clean drinking water facilities to more than several million people in the country.

We will continue to improve our operations and services and looking forward to meeting the ever-evolving needs of our esteemed clients. We are expecting more new businesses and we will target to receive as many projects for urban and rural water supply and bulk water supply for irrigation. Most importantly, we are preparing to welcome new clients to serve and improve drinking water supply in the country. It is a great time to be in the water industry.

What do you think would be the contribution of private players in water infrastructure building?

The government is focusing on overall infrastructure development in order to sustain economic progress leading towards the target of $5 trillion economy by FY25. Water infrastructure development projects apart from roads, metro rail, waterways, sanitation, dedicated freight corridor, Bharatmala, Sagarmala schemes will continue to improve connectivity and urban infrastructure in the country.

With the aim to attract private participation, government is placing proper mechanism in place and eager to attract private investment in large water and wastewater infrastructure development. Private investment into building robust water and wastewater infrastructure will play a key in putting India on a high growth trajectory with good economic benefits.

There are a few good example of private participation in water treatment, desalination and wastewater treatment and reuse projects, but private investments in large water supply projects are still limited.

Give us an insight on how technology has formed the backbone of the company’s excellence in project delivery.

Technology has become a major game changer in every walk of life. The pandemic has opened the doors to a lot of things that earlier we didn’t think could have been done virtually. From remote work culture to online presence and science based solutions that can produce reliable and positive changes. The technology implementation has been expedited after covid disruptions and SPML Infra has implemented advance technologies and contemporary solutions to streamline the project planning, execution, monitoring and overall functioning of the organization which is being coordinated and controlled through technology. The modern management system, automation and technological intervention in our projects are helping us to have better control over the challenging situations while adhering to quality, cost and time management.

What are the challenges India face in water infrastructure building? How those challenges could be addressed?

Water supply management is considerably a challenging task. We need to consider an integrated approach to water supply and wastewater management, in the country facing acute water scarcity. There is a greater need to think sustainable way of water supply augmentation by adopting a systematic approach towards wastewater treatment with complete reuse facilities for non-potable purposes. Innovative technology adoption in water sector is still in its nascent stage and adequate financial resources are needed for building better water and wastewater infrastructure. Amendments needed in the National Water Policy (2012) to emphasize on re-use of treated wastewater and reduction in groundwater extraction.

Increase technical and financial assistance to water utilities to manage water supply and wastewater treatment and reuse projects while encouraging private participation. Create a national regulatory framework and institution to oversee management of water resources and take care of disputes related to water and pricing of water on pan India basis. Improvement in water governance system based on participation of relevant stakeholders and capacity building programmes at all levels with clear objectives are required for system efficiency. Suitable policy intervention that deals with ground water, regulates its extraction needs to be implemented homogenously across the country.

What are the major big infra projects that are under implementation by government or private players in the country?

The infrastructure sector is in the prime focus of Government of India as it wishes to spend INR 111 lakh crore on infrastructure development during 2019-25 under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Prominent sectors such as energy, roads, water & sanitation, urban development and railways will have almost 71% of the projected infrastructure investments. The dedicated schemes like Jal Jeevan Mission (Rural) with INR 3.6 Lac Crore budget upto 2024, Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) with exclusive budget of INR 2.87 Lac Crore for the duration of 2021-2026, Namami Gange programme with INR 20,000 Crore are some of the flagship programmes that will continue for a longer period.

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