Govt adds 177 new infra projects in Apr

New Delhi In April, 177 infrastructure projects were added, taking the total number of projects worth investment of Rs150 crore and above to 1,605. An overwhelming number of projects, 156, are under the Road Ministry, 17 under Power, two under Petroleum, and one each under the Urban Development and Telecom Ministries, official sources told Bizz Buzz.

The month also saw the completion of 20 projects - four under the Road Ministry, seven each under Petroleum and Power, and one each under the Urban and Health Ministries.

More than half, 821, of the total 1,605 projects reported delays with respect to their original schedules and 132 projects reported additional delays vis-à-vis their date of completion reported in March. Of these 132 projects, 43 are mega projects costing Rs1,000 crore and above.

In terms of cost overruns, originally the 1,605 projects involved a total investment of Rs 2,285,674.25 crore, but now the anticipated completion cost is Rs2,750,591.38 crore. This is an increase of Rs464,917.13 crore or 20.34 per cent of the original cost. The expenditure incurred on these projects till April was Rs1,413,592.88 crore, which was 51.39 per cent of the anticipated cost.

Out of the 1,605 projects, 15 projects are ahead of schedule and 377 are on schedule, while 250 projects reported both time and cost overruns with respect to their original project implementation schedules.

For 413 projects, neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported, the sources said.

The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation set up an Online Computerized Monitoring System (OCMS) to monitor the milestones of various infrastructure projects. While the Ministry regularly asks the project agencies to enter the list of milestones for each project, not all agencies provide the list of milestones.

The agencies are not reporting revised cost estimates and commissioning schedules for many projects. The Centre suspects that time and cost overrun figures may be underreported, the officials said.

Cost Overrun Hits Majority Projects

• Over half, 821, of the total 1,605 projects reported delays
• 132 projects reported additional delays
• Of these, 43 are mega projects costing Rs1,000 cr and above
• 1,605 projects’ estimated investment rose from Rs2,285,674.25 cr to Rs2,750,591.38 cr