Over Half of all Central Infra Projects Delayed, Cost Rises by Rs 3 Lakh Crore

Delhi: Union Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh on Monday told the Rajya Sabha that more than half or 58% of infrastructure projects undertaken by the central government are delayed, leading to a whopping cost increase of Rs 3.19 lakh crore

According to the data provided by the MoS of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 835 of the total 1,438 central sector infrastructure projects are currently delayed. The data was sought by Binoy Viswam, a Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala representing the Communist Party of India (CPI).

According to the reply by Singh, the total anticipated cost for the 835 delayed projects is pegged at Rs 14.07 lakh crore whereas the original cost was Rs 10.88 lakh crore. The anticipated increase in cost due to the delay of these projects is estimated to be Rs 3.19 lakh crore.

The break-up of the 1429 projects provided in the minister’s reply shows the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has the most number of projects with time overrun -- 428 out of 724 projects.

On the other hand, the Railways Ministry is seeing the maximum cost overrun. With 117 delayed projects, whose original cost was Rs 1.7 lakh crore, the railways saw the anticipated cost of the completion of these projects go up to Rs 3.16 lakh crore.

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors the “time and cost overruns of Central Sector Infrastructure Projects costing Rs 150 crores and above based on the information provided by the project implementing agencies on Online Computerized Monitoring System (OCMS),” the minister’s  reply said.

As on January 2023, 1,438 Central Sector Infrastructure projects with anticipated completion cost of Rs 24.86 lakh crore were on the Ministry’s OCMS.