Takshashila Case Study - Metronet PPP in the UK: Implications for India

Economic Policy
Written By

Executive Summary

This paper analyses the challenges faced by the policymakers in the U.K. in designing, managing, and winding up of a Metronet Public-Private-Partnership (Project), with a value of nearly GBP 16 billion. The PPP project, initiated in 2003, was envisaged to be a 30-year project, but by 2008 the project was wound up and reverted to the public authorities. The paper examines the reasons for this outcome, and the performance of the London underground since the wounding up of PPP in 2008. The paper is an instructive case study for India, a middle-income country that plans to use the PPP method extensively to meet its infrastructure and social sector challenges. Among the key implications arising from the Metronet PPP case study for India are the government’s willingness and ability to rethink major decisions, and even reverse them; flexibility in re-skilling its government agencies to fulfil mission objectives, and demonstrated intent and accountability to meet citizen’s emerging and aspirational needs. Intangible aspects involving social and political norms of the stakeholders were found to play an important role in the outcome of the Metronet PPP project.

Authors

Featured
Mukul G Asher
Mukul G Asher

Mukul G. Asher is a Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He received his PhD in Economics from Washington State University in 1972. In addition to India, Singapore and USA, he has also taught or researched in U.K., Sweden, Japan, Australia and Malaysia. He was previously a Fellow at Takshashila. His research has focused on fiscal reforms, India’s external economic policies, and pension reform in Asia.

Varun Ramachandra
Varun Ramachandra

Varun Ramachandra is currently a PhD candidate in the political science department at the University of Rochester. His research interests include observational causal inference, bayesian inference, statistical inference etc. He previously worked as a Research Analyst with Takshashila from 2014 to 2016 where he focused on using econometrics, causal inference and data science techniques to tackle public policy issues.

Shahana Sheikh
Shahana Sheikh

Shahana Sheikh is an independent researcher and was previously a policy researcher in the areas of urban governance and public finance in India. She has a MPhil in Political Science from Yale University and also a Master’s in Public Policy from the LKY School, NUS. Her current research areas include understanding how new communication technologies are affecting the behaviour of political parties and of voters in India.

Previous

Takshashila Case Study - Private Finance Initiative in UK: Insights for India
Next

Takshashila Discussion Document - The looming United States pivot towards containing China’s influence