Governance Issues in PPP Procurement Options Analysis of Social Infrastructure: Case of Indian Waste Management Sector

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact of procurement strategies on the local governments’ service delivery in the context of India. The validity of the rhetorical arguments previously developed in the extant literature—innovation, market’s maturity, quality specifiability, scope economies, competition, information asymmetries and transaction attributes—that are used to promote bundled public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements are explored. This is done using longitudinal case study methodology in an abductive research setting. Six cities of India and their activities concerning the municipal solid waste (MSW) management are used for testing. Thirty-nine semistructured interviews with PPP stakeholders, observations, and documentary analysis provided the evidence. The cases have offered important insights on how and why variations tend to occur among the two procurement models, i.e., bundling and unbundling and what practices can contribute to the success of these projects.