Centre resolves 615 infrastructure projects worth Rs 22.35 trillion

125 projects that have an anticipated investment of Rs 8,19,780 crore require no further government intervention, says Nirmala Sitharaman.

The Project Monitoring-Invest India Cell (PMIC), set up to fast track large infrastructure projects by the Centre, has so far resolved 615 out of the total 1,038 projects that came under its review, that may see investment to the tune of around Rs 22.35 trillion, said a government statement on Monday.

The issue of 125 projects--with an anticipated investment of Rs 8,19,780 crore--required no further intervention from PMIC, said Finance and Corporate Affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. Around 340 projects have been partly or fully commissioned with actual flow of investment to Rs 11.66 trillion, based on February 2019 data, while 238 projects worth Rs 8.5 trillion are in the pipeline.

The statement added that as on June 2019, 298 projects with an investment of Rs 10.99 trillion are under consideration of PMIC now. PMIC has been monitoring the resolution of a variety of issues brought before it by the central ministries, state governments and project proponents. However, there is no prescribed criterion for classifying a project as a stalled project. The primary focus of PMIC is on expediting the approvals for clearances from central and state authorities for setting-up of projects. PMIC does not distinguish between a ‘stalled’ or an ‘under implementation’ project in accepting a project for resolution of its issues.

The major sectors on which PMIC has so far cleared projects under various sectors including national highways, railways, chemicals and fertilizers, civil aviation, shipping, coal, power, mines, petroleum and natural gas, cement, construction and steel.

Among various sectors, power has got the maximum number of 246 projects that got cleared, that may see about Rs 13.23 trillion worth of investments, followed 201 projects in the road transport and highways sector with an investment of Rs 2.22 trillion. In petroleum sector, 52 projects worth around Rs 3.72 trillion got fresh life under PMIC, while steel too got 42 projects resolved with around Rs 4.45 trillion investment.

In his Independence day speech in 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted the dismal pace of project implementation in India. He said that “a space vehicle to Mars can be easily executed in nine months, a railway line spanning a mere 70 km lies unfinished for 42 years”. A Project Monitoring Group (PMG) had been set up in 2013 under the Cabinet Secretariat. Since September 2015, it started working under the Prime Minister’s Office and got rechristened into PMIC.

At present, 36 projects worth around Rs 2.06 trillion in power, 89 projects with an investment of Rs 1.83 trillion in road transport and highways, 115 Rail sector projects worth Rs 1 trillion and 15 coal sector projects worth nearly Rs 69,971 crore are under the consideration of PMIC.