New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS): In an attempt to overcome the urban infrastructure deficit, the government is encouraging development of workable public-private partnership (PPP) models, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath said Monday.

"The governments want to encourage the right PPP model as the urban infrastructure is the biggest challenge we face. We need workable and several types of PPP models," Kamal Nath said.

Inaugurating a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) on "Urban Infrastructure - PPP for Better Public Service", the minister stated that the challenges of urbanisation in India is huge and unprecedented in scale.

"The government is pushing for PPP to bridge the infrastructure deficit. As the country is urbanising rapidly, the infrastructure gap would widen if timely steps were not taken," he said.

Kamal Nath also said the population has increased from 285 million in large urban areas in 2001 to 400 million in 2011, and is likely to grow up to 600 million in the next 15 years.

The minister also said there was tremendous scope of adopting the PPP model in infrastructure projects in India.

"There are huge opportunities for partnering in infrastructure projects like solid waste management, water waste recycling. There are huge opportunities available in India because the numbers are so large," Kamal Nath said.