Maha to launch Project Monitoring Group

Against the backdrop of a rout in the Lok Sabha elections and with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly polls, the Maharashtra government has decided to set up a monitoring group to expedite clearances of industrial projects.
The government is likely to launch a PMG (project monitoring group) portal next week that will facilitate faster clearances of industrial projects through web to ensure more transparency and time-bound action.
"In view of the success of the PMG at the Centre, there was a demand from the industry to lower the threshold limit. Accordingly, the Centre is now assisting states, including Maharashtra, to set up their own portals for smaller projects," the Central PMG chairman Anil Swarup told PTI.

Swarup said that project-related clearances will be monitored through a web portal and he would soon be coming to the city to launch it.
A specialised project monitoring group (PMG) had been set up last year during the previous UPA government to accelerate pending industrial projects worth up to Rs 1,000 crore as the stalled projects touched a whopping Rs 21 trillion under its watch.
Maharashtra will be the eighth state to set up a project monitoring group after Odisha, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Karnataka.

The Prithviraj Chavan government has come under criticism from industry players as well as political parties for delay in clearances for projects which they claimed was impacting the growth of the state.

Though the government has been taking steps to ensure single-window clearances, due to various levels of approvals required, projects have been delayed.
Swarup said that at the central level, in all 438 projects have been accepted for consideration so far which entail an investment of around Rs 21 trillion.
"So far the central PMG has facilitated clearance of 155 projects that entail an investment of more than Rs 5 trillion crore," he said.