Road transport, highways sector has max number of delayed projects: Govt

The road transport and highways sector has the maximum number of delayed projects at 428, followed by railways at 117 and the petroleum industry at 88, showed a government report.

In the road transport and highways sector, 428 out of 724 projects are delayed. In railways, out of 173 projects, 117 are delayed, while in the petroleum sector, 88 out of 158 projects are running behind schedule, as per the latest flash report on infrastructure projects for December 2022.

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) is mandated to monitor central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above based on the information provided on the Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) by the project implementing agencies.

The IPMD comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The report showed that the Muneerabad-Mahaboobnagar rail project is the most delayed project. It is delayed by 276 months.

The second-most delayed project is the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project, which is delayed by 247 months.

The third-most delayed project, Belapur-Seawood-Urban Electrified Double Line, is running 228 months behind schedule.

The flash report for December 2022 contains information on the status of the 1,438 central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above.

As many as 835 projects are delayed with respect to their original schedules and 174 projects have reported additional delays vis-a-vis their date of completion reported in the previous month. Of these 174 projects, 47 are mega projects costing Rs 1,000 crore and above.

About the road transport and highways sector, the report stated that the total original cost of implementation of 724 projects when sanctioned was Rs 3,82,180.34 crore but this was subsequently anticipated at Rs 4,02,958.36 crore, implying a cost overrun of 5.4 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till December 2022 was Rs 2,35,925.26 crore, which is 58.5 per cent of the anticipated cost.

Similarly, in railways, the total original cost of implementation of 173 projects when sanctioned was Rs 3,72,761.45 crore, which was subsequently revised to Rs 6,25,491.15 crore -- a cost overrun of 67.8 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till December 2022 was Rs 3,65,079.88 crore, or 58.4 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

About the petroleum sector, it said the total original cost of implementation of 158 projects when sanctioned stood at Rs 3,82,097.19 crore but this was subsequently increased to Rs 4,02,446.01 crore, implying a cost overrun of 5.3 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till December 2022 was Rs 1,54,240.87 crore, or 38.3 per cent of their anticipated cost.