As many as 314 infrastructure development projects worth over `388 crore are poised to be shelved in the State, thanks to the failure of different departments in getting them off the ground in time.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has already sounded out the State Government on the situation. If they are not grounded within 18 months from the date of sanction, the projects under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) loan will be automatically deleted.
Of the non-starter projects, Agriculture Department has the highest number with 203 still waiting to go into the execution phase followed by 37 with the Rural Development department. The Rural Development department, however, accounts for major chunk of the funds yet to be utilised with `122.57 crore.
The Water Resources department has also ` 125.63 crore unused through 14 non-starter projects while the Works department has ` 69.42 crore through six projects. The rest of the total `388.55 crore at stake are shared between Water resources (Minor irrigation), RWSS, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Departments.
Nabard has also pointed out a whopping 13,604 projects involving a sanctioned loan of ` 1424.01 crore as slow moving.
The bank has taken up the matter with the Planning and Coordination department asking it to persuade the implementing departments to improve execution rate. The Tranche XII and XIII under RIDF are going to close on December 31 with Tranche XIV and XV to follow on March 31, 2014 and March 31, 2015 respectively.
Around `464.29 crore of the sanctioned ` 478.65 crore under Tanche XII, `439.11 crore of sanctioned ` 488.73 crore under Tranche XIII, `709.79 crore of `788.21 crore under Tranche XIV and `577.03 crore of `724.69 crore of Tranche XV have already been released.
Thus, there is a need to focus on improving pace of implementation of slow moving projects to bring them on to normal moving project status as well as put the non-starters on ground, Chief General Manager of Nabard SK Kale has written to Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary I Srinivas.
The Planning and Coordination department has now asked different departments to review the status of projects and boost implementation.