Some
900 projects in India hit by delays; nearly $10 bn lost
By
Rajeev Ranjan Roy
New
Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Spiralling prices, funds crunch, poor
equipment and slow environmental clearances have delayed some
900 major infrastructure and other projects in India, burdening
the exchequer with extra cost of over Rs.368 billion (nearly
$10 billion), says an official report.
"It
may be seen that a number of projects require review of the
sanctioned cost," says the report on central government
projects, mainly covering infrastructure, prepared by the
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The
report itself was delayed, as "the project authorities
are not furnishing complete and accurate data on time",
it said.
The
report on cost and time over-runs comes against the backdrop
of official estimates putting India's funds requirement for
infrastructure projects at $500 billion over the next five
years.
The
cost of as many as 897 projects had gone up by as much as
10.25 percent, or Rs.368.34 billion, of which Rs.236.49 billion
was accounted for by 308 projects, says the report, a copy
of which is with IANS.
The
largest number of delayed projects, 126, was in the road transport
and highways sector, followed by 33 in railways, 25 in petroleum
and 23 in health and family welfare ministries.
According
to the report, internal auditors found price rise, higher
cost of land, funds constraints, poor supply of equipment
and delay in environment clearances the key hurdles in implementing
major projects.
With
India's annual rate of inflation going past the eight percent
mark and expected to rise further after the steep hike in
transport and cooking fuel prices, the cost over-run is expected
to worsen in coming months.
The
report, prepared by the ministry's infrastructure and project
monitoring division, also says that the list of projects included
in it was not exhaustive, suggesting that the estimates arrived
at may be understated vis-a-vis the actual number of projects
facing time and cost over-runs.
The
other ministries facing cost and time over-runs in their projects
include telecom with 21, coal and steel with 18 each, civil
aviation with 16, shipping and ports with 13 and urban development
with 11.
The
delays were found to be in the range of 30 days to 155 months
(almost 13 years).
The
report only looks at projects of the central government costing
over Rs.200 million and covers 15 sectors. It looks at ongoing
projects during the July-September 2007 quarter.
To
check delays in executing projects, the report has suggested
amendments to land acquisition procedures, standardisation
of the contract management system, and making the standing
committee in each ministry more effective.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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