New Delhi

Road Transport and Highways, Railways and Petroleum top the sectors having maximum number of delayed projects across the country. In Road Transport and Highways - of the 843 projects, 301 are delayed, in Railways - of the 211 projects 127 are delayed and in Petroleum - out of 139 projects 91 are delayed.

According to a reply by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, as on June 1, a total of 1,568 Central Sector Infrastructure projects with anticipated completion cost of Rs 26,54,818.05 crore were on the Ministry's online computerized monitoring system (OCMS). Out of the 1568 projects, 721 were delayed.

The data disclosed that the number of delayed projects has gone up during the last three years. Total number of delayed projects on June 1, 2020 was 456 which increased to 525 on June 1, 2021 and 721 on June 1, 2022. The reasons for time overruns are project-specific, depend on a variety of technical, financial and administrative factors, and differ from project to project.

However, as reported by the project implementing agencies on the Ministry's OCMS portal, the main reasons for increase in time of the projects are: law and order problems, delay in land acquisition, delay in environment and forest clearances, funding constraints, rehabilitation and resettlement issues, local body/municipal permissions, utility shifting, contractual issues, etc.

The major steps undertaken to ensure completion of Central Sector Infrastructure Projects without time overruns include; Periodic review of projects under PRAGATI through video conferencing by the Prime Minister; rigorous project appraisal; OCMS for better monitoring; setting up of Revised Cost Committees in the Ministries; regular review of infrastructure projects by the concerned administrative Ministries; and setting up of Central Sector Projects Coordination Committees (CSPCCs) in the States under the Chief Secretaries for removal of bottlenecks and for facilitating the speedy implementation of major projects, said the reply.

The outgoing President had then escorted Murmu to the Presidential study for a brief meeting. Earlier in the morning, Murmu paid tributes to the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.