Potential Pitfalls in PPP Policy Application: Lessons Learned from National Highway Development Programmes in India

Successfully implementing public–private partnerships (PPP) depend on the establishment of effective policy and institutional frameworks. While such factors play a significant role, practitioners often face obstacles posed by other less visible, and often indefinable, factors. The purpose of this article is to identify such X factors which had delayed the delivery of the National Highway Development Programmes in India, where well-defined policy and institutional frameworks are in place. This article finds that the entangled nature of inter-agency relationships and the resultant faulty selection of PPP policy options were the root causes of delay, which then invited a chain reaction that slowed down the entire process.