Lack of talent and bureaucracy hinders infrastructure projects

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Lack of talent and co-ordination in project management, land acquisition and multiple regulatory approvals are behind the tardy pace of infrastructure projects, a study conducted by Project Management Institute and KPMG has revealed. The study, commissioned by Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, said the dearth of talent in planning and management is also among the key reasons for slow development.

The study covered nine infrastructure sectors-- power, petroleum, coal, steel, Railways, roads & highways, civil aviation, ports and shipping, and telecom. The findings are based on a survey carried among 25 PSU and non-PSU organizations including interactions with over 100 respondents in these companies.

The report states that one of the major problems encountered by the infrastructure projects is schedule overruns which leads to hike in costs of the project. The prime reason has been delays in land acquisition, multiple approvals. The report identifies that global leading practices have not been dynamically adopted in the system so as to avoid these problems. The lack of clarity on relief and rehabilitations and the inability of the bureaucracy to adapt to changes have been identified as one of the major hurdles.

The lack of talent in project management has been attributed to availability of other lucrative options for highly qualified engineers and project managers in other sectors like IT and finance. The report states that the situation is expected to aggravate further as the current education system is unable to deliver the required number of specialists. Further the Indian vocational training curriculum needs to be updated to global standards.

Sixty-three per cent of respondents in the PSU sector agreed that the project delays have been due to inadequate ability of skilled resources, 37 per cent agreed that delays can be attributed to ineffective project monitoring. Seventy nine per cent opined that design/scope changes caused delays and cost escalation.

Recently PMO had called for a meeting to take review of the infrastructure projects and had set deadline for major infrastructure projects for award of contracts and completion worth Rs. 1 lakh crore. The report emphasizes that apart from bureaucratic will and political dynamism, there is a need to focus on getting efficient project leadership and planning.