)
Almost 47 per cent of the 258 stalled major central infrastructure projects, valued at Rs 1,000 crore are expected to be commissioned in the current financial year, a government analysis shows.
A majority of the projects expected to be commissioned this year will be in the power sector, numbering around 30, followed by roads at 20 and petroleum at 10.
Eight projects belonging to Indian Railways are expected to be commissioned in 2015-16, data furnished during a review meeting on major infrastructure projects held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) sometime ago show. They were made public recently.
| PROJECT BLUEPRINT |
|
The meeting was coordinated by the NITI Aayog. About 87 projects are expected to be commissioned after March 2016, while 51 projects do not have any firm commissioning date, data showed.
Total investments in stalled projects have come down from around eight to nine per cent of GDP (according to the old series) three years ago to around seven per cent as on December 2014.
Of this, the share of private sector was 5.5 per cent of the GDP, while that of the public sector was hardly 1.4 per cent as in third quarter of 2014-15. Time overrun in the infrastructure projects stretched from one year to 20 years.
Officials said in the meeting it was decided to identify the top 100 stalled projects for speedy execution as it will address 83 per cent of investment.
In the new and renewable energy sector, the government has set a target for enhancing solar energy from 3,000 Mw to 100,000 Mw for solar by 2022, for wind to 60,000 Mw from 22,000 Mw, and from 7,000 Mw to 15,000 Mw from other sources.
The Centre plans to make 26,000 km of new roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in 2015-16. The total roads constructed under this in 2014-15 were 36,883 km.
The target for rural electrification has been pegged at 3,500 villages in 2015-16. The total achievement in 2014-15 was 1,465 villages. The government plans to provide broadband connectivity to 600 million households by 2020. At present, about 94 million households have broadband connectivity.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchaee Yojana (PMKSY), the Centre plans to create additional irrigation potential of 600,000 hectares in 2015-16, and bring an extra 300,000-400,000 hectares under command area development during the year.
As part of the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, 5,802 villages will be provided power by 2018-19. On coal, total domestic production is expected to be around 700 million tonnes in 2015-16. In crude oil, the target production for 2015-16 is 37.05 million tonnes. In railways, which have the worst record in terms of delays in completion, the government has decided to directly monitor 15 of the 84 projects valued at over Rs 1,000 crore that are delayed.
