Massive lags, cost overruns and a tale of India's plagued infra projects

Covid-19 has affected the addition of new projects, but that may act as a breather in making good the massive shortfall in implementation

Lalitpur is a agricultural town in Uttar Pradesh that grows pulses extensively. Three hundred miles to the East lies Singrauli, the energy hub that houses large coal and power plants. The towns are a part of Bundelkhand, one of the most under-developed regions in the country. A railway line connecting the two, an economic lifeline for the small towns in between, was approved in 1998 under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. It was to have been commissioned by 2008 at an expenditure of Rs 248 crore. 

This was, however, the plan, and as you might have guessed, it went off