Of the 1,821 projects registered on the ministry’s portal, 617 were on schedule, whereas 780 were delayed; 431 faced cost overrun, and 255 faced both time and cost overrun.
Of the 780 delayed projects, 25% were delayed for 1-12 months; another 24% were delayed for 1-2 years, and 51% were delayed for over two years.
“The average time overrun in these 780 delayed projects is 36.13 months,” it said. During January, 22 projects were added, and 13 were completed.
The government has been pushing for faster completion. Until January 2024, 229 projects with a value of Rs 2.1 lakh crore have been completed, compared with 329 in FY23 and 186 prior to the pandemic.
The ratio of cost overrun in large central government projects declined in January to 18.41%, after a three-month high of 18.65% in December.The ministry classifies cost overrun when the project’s anticipated cost exceeds the original cost. A time overrun is calculated when the project exceeds the stipulated time allotted for the completion of the project.The anticipated cost of 1,821 projects valued over Rs 150 crore and above at Rs 30.9 lakh crore was higher than the original cost by Rs 4.8 lakh crore.
Among sectors, while Railways and Road Transport and Highways accounted for three-fourths of the projects facing cost overruns, as a proportion of their total projects, the ratio was also high for Railways at 55%.
Nearly 40% of projects in Railways and Roads also faced time overruns.
Nearly 373 projects were without a proper date of commissioning, as per ministry data. The extent of cost overruns may be further obfuscated as certain agencies have not revised cost estimates.
“It has also been observed that project agencies are not reporting revised cost estimates and commissioning schedules for many projects, which suggests that time/cost overrun figures may be underreported,” it said.
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