Delhi’s urban challenges are increasingly interconnected. Transport, housing, water, sanitation, energy, and health care form part of a wider urban system, in which decisions in one sector, more often than not, affect outcomes in others. As the national capital addresses the demands of a growing metropolis, the challenge is to ensure that investment, institutional capacity and technology translate into reliable public services. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) can most certainly contribute to this effort, but their success depends on the quality of governance that underpins them.

The case for PPPs, across sectors, rests on the potential to combine public oversight with private capital, expertise and operational capabilities. However, private participation does not automatically guarantee efficiency, nor does it diminish the government’s responsibility to citizens. The central question, therefore, is whether a partnership can deliver a public service more effectively, sustainably, and with significantly greater accountability than the available alternatives. The objective must be better public outcomes, not private investment for its own sake.

This approach requires integrated planning. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, has emphasised this principle in the context of PM Gati Shakti, the infrastructure, mobility, and logistics master plan, stating that it would ensure “true public-private partnership in infrastructure creation from infrastructure planning to........

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