Letters: The role of CCI

This refers to the editorial "End of the cycle?" (June 18) that said "the Cabinet Committee on Investment, much hyped, has so far been a disappointment". This conclusion is contrary to the facts. The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) has been able to de-bottleneck stalled projects involving a cumulative investment of Rs 1.61 lakh crore. These projects will facilitate future investment of Rs 92,000 crore, since investment of Rs 69,000 crore has already been made in these stalled projects. These initiatives include issuing environment clearances to 106 different development projects; clearances to 30 New Exploration Licensing Policy blocks, where clearances were pending with either the ministry of commerce or the ministry of defence; 10 power transmission line projects and North Karanpura thermal power project in Jharkhand. The government's decision to set up a special cell in the Cabinet Secretariat is essentially in the nature of a project monitoring group for all large projects. The special cell is intended to monitor stalled projects much more closely, and would cover even those that may not require any clearance from the CCI. This is expected to give a fillip to the task of de-bottlenecking stalled projects. If a decision of the CCI is required in any case, the special cell will bring the case to it.

Ravinder Singh
Director (M&C), Finance, New Delhi

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