Infrastructure is touted as critical to the economy’s sustained growth. However, the lackadaisical approach of states in executing many centrally-assisted projects has forced the Union government to shoot off letters to chief ministers, asking them to put in place a system to expedite implementation of the projects.
To reduce time and cost overruns in infrastructure projects, MS Gill, minister of statistics & programme implementation, has directed all state governments to set up central projects coordination committees, headed by chief secretaries in order to clear bottlenecks. In letters addressed to chief ministers, Gill said it had been observed almost 50 per cent of central sector infrastructure projects see delays due to generic problems faced during implementation. “Any time and cost overruns of central projects would be detrimental to the progress of the country and its efforts to improve on the 8-9 per cent growth rate in gross domestic product,” he said.
Gill said the coordination committees should have representatives from central project authorities in the state, someone from the Union ministry for programme implementation and representatives from the state departments or agencies concerned, like pollution control, revenue and environment and forests deparments.
Saying delays in land acquisition, environmental clearances, shifting utilities and removal of encroachments were the major reasons for delay in completion of infrastructure projects, the minister suggested the coordination committees should meet once every quarter to hasten the projects. “The principle secretary (planning) of the state could be designated as the member secretary for the committee and he would coordinate with central authorities and follow up on decisions of the committee,” the minister said.
He said factors like incomplete land revenue records, agitation by local pressure groups, lack of coordination among different departments too, delay the implementation of infrastructure projects.
According to government data, as in March 2010, almost 333 central infrastructure projects across sectors like atomic energy, civil aviation, petroleum, power, railways, road transport and highways, shipping & ports, steel, telecommunications, urban development and water resources were delayed, leading to a cumulative cost escalation of almost 16 per cent. The maximum number of projects —130 — were in the road transport and highways sector, followed by petroleum, railways and power.