Plan panel to monitor progress of infra projects every quarter

The Planning Commission today set up a mechanism for quarterly monitoring of infrastructure projects in five sectors, including power and roads, to take corrective steps to expedite implementation.

"We will report (the progress) to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) so that the government can take a decision... For implementation of the projects," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said while releasing this fiscal's targets for railway, civil aviation and ports, besides power and roads.

The quarterly progress report, he added, would be placed before CCI which is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The important targets for 2010-11 announced by Ahluwalia include additional power generation capacity of 20,359 Mw, development of 2,500 km of highways and 1,019 km of new rail lines. During 2009-10 only 9,585 Mw electricity generation capacity was added against the target of 14,507 Mw and 2,008 km of highways were constructed (target of 3,165 km).

As far as railway is concerned, only 85 km of new lines were added during April-December 2009 against the full financial year target of 250 km.

When asked whether the Commission's move is face saver for the Prime Minister, who will be holding a press conference on May 24, Ahluwalia said, "It will be on completion of one year of the UPA-2 government. If you ask on monitoring of infrastructure projects, he will tell you to see the website of Planning Commission."

The Planning Commission Deputy Chief expressed confidence that investment in the infrastructure sector during the 11th Plan (2007-12) would be close to the target of $500 billion, with private sector contributing about 40 per cent of the amount.

The investment target for the infrastructure sector in the 12th Plan (2012-17) is likely to be fixed at $1 trillion, with private sector contributing about 50 per cent of the total estimated outlay.

The focus of the exercise would be on physical targets instead of financial expenditure, Ahluwalia said, adding "this is for the first time that we are going in for quarterly monitoring of the target."

Although the targets have been set in consultation with the concerned ministries, he said, there will be no punitive action against those departments which fail to meet them.

"Most importantly these are the targets that have been agreed by the ministries...Performance against these targets will be reported on the website with continuous update so that we would be able to tell how much progress has been made," he added.