Appoint regulator to monitor PSU projects: Assocham

The government should put in place a watchdog to monitor timely execution of projects as delays in implementation valued about Rs 2 lakh crore to the economy in the past decade, Assocham said.

The chamber said that due to variety of reasons, including delays in required clearances from Public Investment Board (PIB), over 60 per cent of projects to be executed by profit-making PSUs are never completed on schedule.

According to its estimates, cost of delays on projects implementation in the last one decade is conservatively pegged at around Rs 2 lakh crore for the whole of economy.

"(Government should) put in place an effective project implementation regulator to monitor timely execution of projects...," Assocham said.

"The regulator should be put in place as majority of PSU projects are delayed in the absence of a watchdog," Assocham President Swati Piramal said.

Over half of projects announced for implementation as well as capacity expansion in sectors like road, ports, highways, power, railways and telecommunication have hardly been commissioned as per the promised schedule, it said.

"This has happened since public sector companies are more often denied PIBs clearances," it said.

This practice needs to be discouraged and efforts put in on war front so that the proposed regulator is put in place with sufficient teeth, it said.