New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS) Investment of at least Rs.25.7 lakh crore ($514 billion) required in India’s infrastructure sector can be mobilised only through public private partnerships (PPP), Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Wednesday.
“We require at least $514 billion in the infrastructure sector during the five-year period between 2007-12 and such huge funds can be mobilised only through PPP,” Mukherjee said at the 42nd Consultative Committee Meeting (CCM) of the Colombo Plan.

“I am also glad that PPP has been chosen as the theme for the CCM,” he said.

Currently there are 415 PPP projects being implemented in various parts of the country worth about $48 billion.

India, which is a founding member of the Colombo Plan, is hosting the CCM meet for the third time since its inception in January 1950.

Mukherjee said the Colombo Plan represented a joint attempt of countries with differing systems to help one another in fighting economic backwardness.

“As a founder member, India has always taken a lead in promoting the cause of collective self-reliance among Colombo Plan member countries. India views the Colombo Plan as one of the oldest effective regional inter-governmental organisations for cooperative economic and social development in Asia and the pacific,” the minister said.

From a group of seven Commonwealth nations, the Colombo Plan has now grown as an international organisation of 26, including non-Commonwealth nations.