As many as 343 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or above, have shown cost overrun of Rs 2.23 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a report said.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above.
"Total original cost of implementation of the 1,332 projects was Rs 16,26,675.52 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 18,49,766.91 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 2,23,091.39 crore (13.71 per cent of original cost)," the ministry's latest report for April 2018 said.
Of these 1,332 projects, 343 reported cost overrun and 253 time escalation.
According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till April 2018 is Rs 6,63,109.75 crore, which is 35.85 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.
However, it said the number of delayed projects decreases to 187 if delay is calculated on the basis of latest schedule of completion.
"For 634 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported. Out of 253 delayed projects, 59 projects have overall delay in the range of 1 to 12 months, 48 (13-24 months), 76 projects (25-60 months) and 70 projects (61 months and above).
The report attributes the time overrun to a host of issues, including delay in land acquisition, forest clearance, supply of equipment, fund constraint, Maoist incursion, legal cases and law and order situation.
The brief reasons for time overruns as reported by various project implementing agencies are delay in land acquisition, delay in forest clearance, delay in supply of equipment, fund constraints and geological surprises, among others.
It also observed that project agencies are not reporting revised cost estimates and commissioning schedules for many projects, which suggests that time/cost overrun figures are under-reported.
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