Have PM's monthly Pragati meetings ramped project execution skills in govt?

The Pragati meetings have twice considered analysis of various projects, but in the absence of data, it is hard to surmise if the mandarins have learnt the right lessons in project management

It has been six months since Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the last Pragati meeting, the monthly stock taking with the secretaries of government departments at the centre. 

The 29 meetings of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation acronym Pragati in the term of this government have cumulatively reviewed projects with a total investment of over Rs 11.75 trillion, according to an official press release. The sum is substantial, at about 21.35 per cent of the total gross fixed capital formation in the economy in 2018-19, measured at current prices. Each of these projects has also been set a timeline for completion going often beyond the term of this government.

However, the list is different from the flash report released every month by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation. The latest flash report available with the ministry is of projects till the month of November 2018. These projects consist of 16 sectors with a total expected bill of Rs 21.51 trillion. The anticipated cost overrun on them is Rs 3.21 trillion. This is unlike the PMO release, which does not mention cost overruns. 

Since capital formation has been desultory in the economy for the past few years, one would want to compare the extent to which the Pragati exercise has whittled down the project overloads, as seen from the flash report. It might offer some clues if the government officers have learnt how to steer projects on the fast track. However this becomes difficult as it is not strictly not an apples-to-apples comparison. The difference between the two is in the nature of projects that are listed. The projects in the list from the statistics ministry are mainly of brick-and-mortar variety. The Prime Minister’s review group has widened the definition of projects to include schemes or consumer grievances such as call drops and social sector projects like the Ayushman Bharat. The list of work on which the officers have signed up on in the case of latter includes those like prompt appointment of health workers, providing of financial support like setting up of escrow accounts and so on. 

Yet there is no doubt that the thrust of the Pragati meetings is on getting stalled projects moving once again. How many such are there? The flash report from the statistics ministry tracks government projects of Rs 150 crore and more. Up to November 2018  there were 1,443 projects listed, of which only about a third or 350 were on schedule. Among the rest, 296 were simply delayed, another 347 projects reported cost overruns while another 128 projects reported both time and cost overrun compared to their original deadlines. The average time overrun in these 360 delayed projects is 44.43 months. This has however come down from a year ago, so there is certainly some improvement there. 

The reasons are visible from the PMO run Pragati meetings. Those meetings have analysed about 320 of these projects. They have not only set time lines to complete them but also set detailed instructions to solve the problems around any projects. Of course the time line for completing many of them has been set beyond the term of the present government, for later in 2019 and even 2020 demonstrating the ambition level of the current NDA ministry. 

Examining the sectors where the Pragati meetings have shown the most emphasis, transport sectors including road and railways dominate. Those are followed by energy sectors. The flash report also shows that these also the sectors where the maximum percentage of cost overruns occur. Excluding the atomic energy sector, the typical delays are in thermal power projects, about Rs 33,250 crore and in railways with the western dedicated freight corridor itself accounting for a cost overrun of Rs 34,509 crore.

The Pragati meetings have twice taken on board the analysis of these projects, but in the absence of data on what the lessons from these projects are, it is difficult to surmise if the top mandarins of India have learnt the right lessons in project management from these exercises.

Sector-wise project cost escalation
Sector	Estimated cost (Rs cr)	Cost overrun (Rs cr)
Atomic Energy	63,658.00	40,978.00
Coal	2,153.88	1,142.32
H&FW	4,863.38	2,158.21
Petroleum	15,371.76	3,793.07
Power	94,529.89	33,251.11
Railways	91,800.48	1,27,133.31
Roads	17,630.64	11,259.14