this story originally appeared in on sep 20 2017new delhi canadabased pension funds psp investments and ontario teachers pension plan otpp are in talks to invest rs 4000 crore in an investment platform copromoted by the government of indiasponsored national investment and infrastructure fund niif persons directly familiar with the matter said the funds could invest in a special purpose vehicle spv floated by niif to fund toll and annuitybased road projects they said the three parties are currently negotiating the structure of the partnership which could entail the creation of a supervisory board in which the funds will have representation the board will monitor investments made by the spv niif may invest a similar amount of money in the spv to acquire a proportionate equity holding in the investment platform or may rope in other investors at a later stage spokespersons for psp investments and ontario teachers declined to comment in response to ets queries niif director saurabh garg who is also a joint secretary in the finance ministry declined to comment niif ceo sujoy bose didnt respond to queries sent by email india is looking to boost investment in roads ports railways energy and airports to upgrade its woeful infrastructure as part of efforts to bolster economic growth the structure of the partnership could mirror a deal struck by canadian asset manager caisse de depot et placement du quebec cdpq with edelweiss group for investing in stressed assets in october last year niif was set up 18 months ago as a quasisovereign wealth fund it roped in bose former global head of infrastructure investments at international finance corporation as its ceo last year niifs board comprises garg securities and exchange board of india sebi chairman ajay tyagi and former economic affairs secretary shaktikanta das the governmentsponsored fund is also separately said to be in discussions with middle eastbased sovereign wealth funds to arrange commitments as it looks to put together a corpus of 5 billion to support infrastructure investments in railways ports and the renewable energy sector it may raise the proceeds in an existing fund management company ottawaheadquartered psp or public sector pension investment board manages over 100 billion in investments for retired officials of canadas public service armed forces and police it acquired ownership of four toll road projects in india totalling 710 kilometres in length as part of a global transaction in which it purchased the assets of spanish infrastructure group isolux corsan in five countries last yearlowrisk investments many road projects are financially unviable because traffic projections did not materialise longterm investors such as pension funds would still find these attractive because they are looking at lowrisk investments and have a 20year horizon said naresh takkar group ceo at moodys local rating arm icra otpp a canadian pension fund that manages investments of 182000 school teachers in ontario has deployed roughly a fourth of its corpus of 140 billion in real estate and infrastructure investments globally it is an investor in london city airport