In its 18th Report tabled in Parliament today, the Standing Committee on Urban Development has noted that under the Urban Infrastructure and governance (UIG) scheme of the ministry, "out of the 555 sanctioned projects only 127 rojects have been physically completed which is only 40.37 per cent."
The UIG is a sub mission of the Urban Development ministry's Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
The Committee observed that in addition to the 127 completed projects, 423 projects were at various stages of completion but the ministry was completely silent about five projects.
The Committee noted that delays may have been caused by reasons like time taken in acquiring necessary permissions, lack of capacity of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) implementing the projects or coast escalation.
"The committee has been informed that the ministry is proposing for further extension of mission period for 2 years for completion of projects and reforms by the states/ULB," the standing committee's said in its report.
The committee said that while the ministry should not bear the burden of cost escalation caused by delays caused by states, it "should ensure completion of all projects of UIG in the extended 2 years period so as to achieve the desired result by 2014."
The standing committee also criticised the ministry for the tardy implementation of the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Satellite towns (UIDSST) around seven mega cities. (MORE) PTI ADS
