A little less than half of the 569 big central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above are running behind schedule due to various hurdles, Parliament was informed today.
"As on June 1, 2013, 569 central sector projects costing Rs 150 crore and above are on the monitor of this Ministry. Of these, 277 projects are running behind schedule," Minister of State (Independent) for Statistics and Programme Implementation Srikant Kumar Jena said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
Jena said the main reasons for delay are law and order problems, delay in land acquisitions, rehabilitation and resettlement problems, fund constraints, delay in forest and environment clearances.
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Besides, rise of way/right of use issues, delay in supply of material, and contractual issues also hampered project completion, he added.
The Minister said that the Planning Commission prepares annual/quarterly targets for key infrastructure projects of the Ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Civil Aviation and Power.
"High level performance reviews against these targets are carried out on quarterly basis," Jena said.
He said target dates for completion of infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above are fixed by project approving authorities. These projects are closely monitored by concerned ministry with respect to target dates of completion.
"A Standing Committee has been set up in each ministry to fix responsibility for cost and time overruns, where cost overruns are over 20% and are accompanied by time overruns of over 10%."
In reply to another question, he said the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors the central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above on the basis on information uploaded by the project implementing agencies on the Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) of the Ministry.
However, Jena said that over the years, projects having time overruns have decreased from 62% in 1991 to 49% in May 2013.