New Delhi, June 5 -- Private equity firms, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds may get to invest across a range of infrastructure projects at the earliest stage as part of a new public-private partnership (PPP) model, two people aware of the plans said. The framework is to expand financial investors' early access beyond highways to greenfield projects in power, railways, airports, ports, urban infrastructure and water supply. The goal is to expand the pool of long-term capital for infrastructure, in a departure from the current model where investors enter after projects start operating. "The department of economic affairs in the finance ministry has discussed the plan for changes in the PPP framework with respective infrastructure-focused central government ministries," one of the two people cited above said. The ministry will take a final call after evaluating investor response to the changes to the road ministry's tenders allowing direct participation by fund houses, the person said, requesting anonymity. While large foreign funds have invested in India for some time, their presence is largely in operating assets. In greenfield projects, direct participation has been limited, constrained by requirements of prior development and execution experience, as well as construction, financing and demand risks. Queries emailed to the ministries of finance and road transport on Tuesday remained unanswered. Queries emailed to fund houses and private equity firms ADIA, CPP Investments, OTPP, General Atlantic, BlackRock, and NIIF remained unanswered. This is significant for India's infrastructure play. DEA data shows 246 projects worth over Rs.11 trillion planned over FY26-28 across central government ministries and departments, including aviation, petroleum, ports, roads, railways, power and water resources. At the state level, the pipeline includes 662 projects worth about Rs.4 trillion....