 "Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan")
The government has resolved issues impeding 62 mega private investment projects worth about ₹10.57 trillion, through the ‘Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation’ (PRAGATI) platform, which has also helped 3,300 stalled public -sector and public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth over ₹85 trillion, get off the ground since it was set up in 2015.
The positive outcomes of interventions made through the PRAGATI platform, monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who chaired the 50th review of projects under the platform on December 31, have also revived private investors’ interest in infrastructure sectors, Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan said on Friday.
“There is greater confidence in the timely execution of projects, particularly in the roads and highways sector, which has enabled larger investment flows, both domestic and foreign, into vehicles like Infrastructure Investment Trusts or InvITs in the recent past. There is a marked increase in the interest in infrastructure financing vehicles now,” Somanathan underlined.
An important learning from PRAGATI which has led to a system-level improvement is that more accurate information is needed beforehand on the physical features of projects which are actually encountered during their execution.
“Traditionally, we have relied on Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) prepared by consultants based on surveys, etc. These DPRs have often been prepared with incomplete information, and many things that are assumed in the DPRs are actually not implementable. So, Lesson number 1 is the improved quality of DPRs and all the ministries have worked on this,” Somanathan said, adding that PRAGATI has led to the learning that more detailing at the time of project planning leads to much faster execution.
As a corollary to this, he pointed to the PM GatiShakti portal which now houses geo-spatial information on many parameters which are important for quick execution of projects. “So, the project planning now considers many of these physical issues before the contracts are awarded. This avoids a situation where an issue or obstruction comes up halfway through a contract,” he pointed out.
Based on experiences from the projects resolved through the PRAGATI system, the government has also begun working on building land banks for afforestation purposes. “This will ensure that the moment a project is sanctioned, the implementing agency can start planting the trees, rather than looking for a piece of land later for this purpose,” he said.
Noting that large time and cost overruns have been a chronic problem in India's public projects and schemes, Somanathan said three key coordination issues plagued implementation — horizontal coordination between central ministries, vertical coordination between the Centre, the State and local governments, and horizontal coordination between the different departments of the states. The Pragati platform facilitates a dialogue with all concerned officials for projects worth ₹500 crore or more, flagged by the nodal ministry in charge, and enables real-time tech-enabled monitoring of progress.
“We have taken up 7,735 issues in the 3,300-odd projects (public sector and PPP projects) under the PRAGATI system, out of which 7156 have been resolved already,” Somanathan said at a press briefing. As many as 73 per cent of the problems facing projects pertained to challenges related to land acquisition, right of way, as well as forest, wildlife and environmental clearances.
The PRAGATI platform has a multi-tiered monitoring system culminating in the apex level where the Prime Minister himself monitors large projects with national importance facing issues. At the PM’s level, 2,958 issues out of 3,187 issues plaguing 382 projects have been resolved.
“Of the projects monitored at the PM level, 114 related to roads and highways, 109 were railways projects and 54 were from the power sector. While they are the largest beneficiaries of the system, there have also been many projects related to petroleum, coal, housing, health and family welfare, Jal Shakti, as well as some related to external affairs and steel,” the country’s top bureaucrat said.
Apart from stalled infrastructure projects, the PRAGATI platform has also been used to monitor 61 government schemes, including the Jan Dhan Yojana, One Nation-One Ration Card, and the Swachh Bharat Mission. Grievances across 36 sectors were also resolved through deliberations on the platform, including the challenges that arose during the Covid-19 pandemic, and grievances in sectors such as real estate, banking and insurance.
During his presentation, Somanathan highlighted major projects that would have taken many more years to complete in a business as usual scenario, in the absence of PRAGATI. These include the over ₹42,000 crore Jammu -Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project that was approved in 1994 but had only managed to achieve 40 per cent progress as of 2015. It was commissioned in June 2025 and has spurred tourism in the State, Chairman, Railway Board, Satish Kumar said.
