NEW DELHI: Amid a big infrastructure push by the Centre, government data showed that the number of delayed projects has gradually gone up during the last five years resulting in cost overruns.
While the number of delayed projects during March 2017 was 327, it increased to 541 in November this year, recording a jump of nearly 65%. The number of total projects also recorded a rise from 1,231 to 1,679 during the period.
The maximum number of delayed projects belongs to the railways followed by Road Transport and Highway.
As many as 141 out of 285 projects under the railways (nearly 50%) are under the delayed category in the latest data by the Ministry of Statistics. In road and highway sector, 134 out of total 889 projects (nearly 15%) are delayed.
The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) of the Ministry of Statistics is responsible for monitoring of the ongoing Central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above on time and cost overruns.
In its report, the ministry has also highlighted the fact that project agencies are not reporting revised cost estimates and commissioning schedules for many projects, which suggests that time/cost overrun figures are underreported.
The latest report says that out of 1,679 projects, 541 projects are delayed with respect to their original schedules and 75 projects have reported additional delays vis-a-vis their date of completion reported in the previous month.
Of these 75 projects, 28 are mega projects costing Rs 1,000 crore and above.
The total original cost of implementation of the 1,679 projects was Rs 22,29,544.27 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 26,67,593.85 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,38,049.58 crore (19.65% of original cost). The expenditure incurred on these projects till November 2021 is Rs 12,88,558.49 crore, which is 48.30% of the anticipated cost of the projects.
As per the latest data, out of the 1,679 projects, 11 projects are ahead of schedule, 292 are on schedule, 541 are delayed, 439 projects reported cost overrun and 212 projects reported both time and cost overrun with respect to their original project implementation schedules.
Main reasons behind the delay are the issues related to land acquisition, forest/environment clearances, delay in tie-up of project financing, among others.
To avoid the cost/time overrun, the Centre has put in place a mechanism including a periodic review of projects under PRAGATI through video conferencing; rigorous project appraisal; Online Computerized Monitoring System (OCMS) for better monitoring; setting up a revised cost committees in the ministries for fixation of responsibility for time and cost overruns among others.
