428 infra projects incur Rs. 4.98-trn cost overrun

New Delhi: As many as 428 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs4.98 lakh crore, as per a report.

According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which monitors infrastructure projects of Rs150 crore and above, out of 1,559 projects, 428 projects reported cost overruns and as many as 647 projects were delayed.

"Total original cost of implementation of the 1,559 projects was Rs21,73,907.11 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs26,72,201.26 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs4,98,294.15 crore (22.92% of original cost)," the ministry's latest report for April 2022 said.

According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till April 2022 was Rs 13,50,610.98 crore, which was 50.54 per cent of their anticipated cost. However, the number of delayed projects decreases to 525 if the delay is calculated on the basis of latest schedule of completion. Further, for 619 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported. Out of the 647 delayed projects, 103 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, 111 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 314 projects for 25-60 months and 119 projects have been delayed for 61 months and above.