358 projects worth Rs 3.53 lakh cr report cost overruns: MOSPI

As many as 358 infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 or above, entailing a total investment of Rs 3.53 lakh crore, reported cost overruns as on August 1, 2018, Parliament was informed Wednesday.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) monitors ongoing Central Sector Infrastructure Projects costing Rs 150 crore and above on time and cost overruns, on the basis of information provided by the project implementing agencies.

"As on August 1, 2018, a total of 1,361 projects were on the monitor of this ministry. Of these, 358 projects worth Rs 3.53 lakh crore are showing cost overruns," Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Vijay Goel said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The minister said that the details of projects showing cost overruns are available in the flash report of July, 2018 at official website.

According to the July report, these 358 infrastructure project had reported a cost overrun of Rs 3.37 lakh crore.

Elaborating further the minister told the House that the causes for cost overruns are project-specific, depend on a variety of technical, financial and administrative factors, and differ from project to project.

He further said that as per the report the main reasons for cost overrun of the projects are: law and order problems, delay in land acquisition, delay in environment and forest clearances, funding constraints, rehabilitation and resettlement issues, local body/municipal permissions, utility shifting, contractual issues, etc.

In a reply to a separate question, the minister told the House that a proposal to release the entire amount of Rs 5 crore of Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) fund for one year in one go is under consideration in consultation with Ministry of Finance.

As on December 5, 2016, the government released Rs 10,315 crore under the MPLAD scheme in the 16th Lok Sabha and Rs 9,128.4 crore was actual expenditure incurred with administration expenditure, according to the statement.