Center’s project indefinitely delayed

As many as 420 infrastructure projects each costing an investment of around rs 150 crores faced a substantial cost and time overrun exceeding rs 4.40 lakh crores and a time span of over 10 years as on November 2023.

This startling revelation was found in the report containing the latest data filed by the central government/s Ministry of statistics and Program implementation

Out of a total of 1,831 projects, 421 experienced cost overruns, while 845 projects faced delays. The original cost of implementation was Rs 25,10,577.59 crore, with an anticipated completion cost of Rs 29,50,997.33 crore, reflecting an alarming 17.54 per cent overall cost overrun.

The report discloses that the expenditure incurred on these projects until November 2023 amounted to Rs 15,58,038.07 crore, representing 52.80% of the anticipated cost. The number of delayed projects drops to 629 when considering the latest completion schedule.

Of the 845 delayed infra projects, 204 face delays of 1-12 months, 198 are delayed for 13-24 months, 322 projects experience delays of 25-60 months, and 121 projects have been delayed for over 60 months. The average time overrun across these projects is a significant 36.64 months.

Industry sources point out several infrastructure projects in Southern India face both cost and time over run since there is no monitoring of these projects.  They include Chennai Port Maduravoyal Elevated Corridor project (25 years) VOC Ports Outer harbor project (13 years) third container terminal in Tuticorin port (6 years) Chennai Bengaluru expressway ( 20 Years) Chennai Bengaluru  Chennai Visakhapatnam industrial corridor (15 years) four new railway line projects in Tamil Nadu (25 years and no sign of their being started) Colachel transshipment terminal cleared by Union cabinet in 2015 status whether alive or dead not known) Second refinery Indian oil corporation at Nagapatinam (23 years) North south dedicated freight corridor of railways (truncated one 20 years) No one knows the fate of Sethu ship canal project in which the central government has pumped in Rs 1200 crores. Tuticorin airport expansion (7 years) second airport for Chennai (20 years) Coimbatore Metro rail ( 8 years) AIMS Madurai ( 20 years).

The agencies which are responsible for the indefinite delays include the Railway board, National Highways authority of India, Ports Ministry, Indian Oil corporation, Civil aviation ministry