Hundreds of infrastructure projects affected due to cost overruns
A total of 438 projects in the infrastructure sector, costing more than Rs 150 crore, have been affected at a total cost of Rs 4.34 lakh crore.
According to a report on monitoring of infrastructure projects released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) for the month of October 2021, out of 1,680 such projects, 438 faced cost overruns while 539 were delayed.
The main reasons behind the delay in projects are the state-wise lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, delay in land acquisition and obtaining forest and environment clearances, the report said.
“The total original cost of implementation of the 1,680 projects was Rs 21,74,182.86 crore and their estimated completion cost is likely to be Rs 26,08,330.02 crore, showing a total cost escalation of Rs 4,34,147.16 crore (19.97 per cent of the original cost)” . ,” the report said.
It further said that the expenditure on these projects as of October 2021 was Rs 12,64,545.31 crore. This is 48 per cent of the estimated cost of the projects, the report said.
Apart from the delay in completion of projects, another interesting fact that emerged in the report was that for 837 projects, neither the year of commissioning nor the expected construction period has been reported.
Out of 539 delayed projects, 98 have delays of 1-12 months, 109 13-24 months, 211 25-60 months and 121 projects 61 months and above.
The average time taken for these 539 delayed projects is 47.16 months.
,