Central infrastructure project costs soar 20%

The cost of central sector infrastructure projects, considered crucial for economic growth, has escalated by 20 per cent to Rs 72.6 lakh crore, from Rs 60.4 lakh crore, as half of the 565 projects, including Phase-II of the Delhi Metro Rail project, are behind schedule.

Delay in land acquisition, forest clearance and inadequate monitoring of work done by contractors are some of the reasons for non-completion in time.

According to the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, 43 per cent, or Rs 31.3 lakh crore, of the revised cost had been spent on these projects till February.

Most of the 285 delayed projects are in the petroleum and road transport sectors. Of the delayed projects, 69 projects are a month to a year behind schedule, while 67 projects are delayed by 13-24 months, 112 projects by 25-60 months and 37 projects by over five years.

As many as 87 projects, sanctioned by various ministries, are without any firm commission date or gestation period.

The highest number of such projects, 57, are sanctioned by the railway ministry.

Some railway projects like gauge conversion of the Gondia-Jabalpur line, a new line connecting Howrah-Amta and Champadanga in West Bengal, and gauge conversion of the Rajkot-Veraval line, were sanctioned almost 10 years before, but these did not have any firm commissioning date till this February.

Projects like the Khagaria-Kushehehwar Asthan new line project of East Central Railway and the Dallirajhara-Jagdalpur and Calicut- Mangalore projects of Southern Railway also don’t have any commissioning date or anticipated time of completion.

In ports and shipping, the controversial Sethusamudram ship channel project, originally supposed to be commissioned on October 2008, has not seen the light of day.

The execution of telecom network requirement for defence forces, supposed to be commissioned in March 2009, has been indefinitely delayed.

“The ministries concerned have been directed to fix the date of commissioning of their projects at the earliest,” a senior government official said.