350 Infrastructure projects cost overuns by Rs 2 lakh crore

NewDelhi Dec 17: Currently many people feel that the infrastructure projects are delayed for long and take many years for completion. A recent report by the government has confirmed this said that nearly 350 projects may see a cost escalation of nearly Rs 2 lakh crores.

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation currently monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above. The Ministry in its report published in September stated that "total original cost of implementation of the 1,263 projects was Rs 15,53,683.89 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 17,49,427.56 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 1,95,743.67 crore (12.60 percent of the original cost)."

Currently, there are 1,263 projects whose cost is above Rs 150 Cr.
# 350 that reported cost overrun
# 297 that showed time escalation.
# 14 projects are ahead of schedule
# 307 are on schedule
# 103 projects show both time and cost overrun
# 380 are mega projects worth Rs 1,000 crore

The report states that many projects have been delayed because of delay in land acquisition, forest clearance, supply of equipment, fund constraints, the Maoist incursion, legal cases and law and order situation.