Road transport, highways sector has most delayed projects: Govt report

The road transport and highways sector has the maximum number of delayed projects at 407, followed by railways at 114 and the petroleum industry at 86, showed a government report.

In the road transport and highways sector, 407 out of 717 projects are delayed.

For railways, out of 173 projects, 114 are delayed, while in the petroleum sector, 86 out of 146 projects are running behind schedule, as per the latest flash report on infrastructure projects for February 2023.

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) is mandated to monitor central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above based on the information provided on the Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) by the project implementing agencies.

The IPMD comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The report showed that the Muneerabad-Mahaboobnagar rail project is the most delayed. It is delayed by 276 months.

The second-most delayed project is the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project, which is delayed by 247 months.

The third-most delayed project, Belapur-Seawood-Urban Electrified Double Line, is running 228 months behind schedule.

The Flash Report for February 2023 contains information on the status of the 1,418 Central Sector Infrastructure Projects costing Rs 150 crore and above.

As many as 823 projects are delayed, 346 projects reported cost overrun and 242 projects reported both times and cost overrun with respect to their original project implementation schedules.

A total of 823 projects are delayed with respect to their original schedules and 159 projects have reported additional delays vis-a-vis their date of completion reported in the previous month.

Of these 159 projects, 38 are mega projects costing Rs 1,000 crore and above.

About the road transport and highways sector, the report stated that the total original cost of implementation of 717 projects, when sanctioned, was Rs 3,97,255.47 crore but this was subsequently estimated to be Rs 4,14,400.44 crore, implying a cost overrun of 4.3 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till February 2023 is Rs 2,33,007.06 crore, which is 56.2 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

Similarly, in railways, the total original cost of implementation of 173 projects, when sanctioned, was Rs 37,2761.45 crore but this was subsequently anticipated to be Rs 6,26,632.52 crore, implying a cost overrun of 68.1 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till February 2023 is Rs 3,79,380.95 crore, which is 60.5 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

About the petroleum sector, it said, the total original cost of implementation of 146 projects, when sanctioned, was Rs 3,67,615.67 crore but this was subsequently anticipated to be Rs 3,85,117.08 crore, implying a cost overrun of 4.8 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till February 2023 is Rs 1,44,162.3 crore, which is 37.4 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.