PM sets up project monitoring group to track large investment projects

The group will aim to fast track approvals for stalled projects, boost investor confidence

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has set up a project monitoring group to track large investment projects, aiming to fast-track approvals for stalled projects and boost investor’s confidence.

 A meeting was chaired by Prime Minister earlier this month to discuss an institutional mechanism to track stalled investment projects both in the public and private sectors and to remove the implementation bottlenecks in these projects on a fast-track basis.  The Prime Minister has directed that a special cell be created immediately in the Cabinet Secretariat, in the form of a project monitoring group for all large projects, both public and private, a government statement said here today.

Finance minister P Chidambaram said a list of about 215 such projects has been complied, where banks have funded over Rs 7 lakh crore. The time and cost overruns being faced by these projects has also been documented, as well as the action required to remove the implementation bottlenecks.

The ministry of environment and forests has an online portal where the status of all projects, submitted for clearances, could be tracked. The list of pending projects for various environment and forest clearances has been significantly reduced, the statement added.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, said this proposed institutional mechanism should be put in place at the earliest and 20 -30 major projects should be chosen across the sectors on priority for speedy resolution. This will work as a confidence booster to investment sentiment and signal the government's seriousness on the issue, he said.

FICCI has also submitted a list of 52 projects in the private sector, with investment of over Rs 1000 crore, which are delayed due to various bottlenecks.

Cabinet Secretariat has also prepared an 'Online CCI Projects Tracking System' portal for tracking projects of over Rs 1000 crore. Cabinet Committee on Investments is already looking into various big investment projects.