This can be largely attributed to the fact that most of the road infrastructure projects have been duly completed, while progress in the others has been continuing at quite a brisk pace. In comparsions, progress in the mining sector and the power sector, have either been bogged down by litigations or by approvals of many state bodies.

Going by the latest figures avaliable from the CMIE, all the mining projects exculding bauxite mines developed by Alcan, have run into some problems or other. Especially, when one considers the fact that around 100 million tonnes of coal mining projects of both expansion or greenfield development, being managed by both Central government and private players has run into rough weather. However, the scenario in oil and gas is better, with production work on most of discovered oil fields expected to start shortly.

According to the data presented in the survey, the worst hit in the power sector have been the hydel power units. There has been progress in some of the thermal power plants, but problems of fuel linkages, sharing of risk -return with Coal India continues to prevent further progress.

But all these problems aside, one area where there has been significant progress is the road sector. Spurred in no small measure by the fact that the incentives offered by the road sector, are amongst one of the highest. Take the Noida Delhi project, where the study points out that the return on the project is 18 per cent. In addition, the UP government has offered a termination guarantee of 20 per cent return on equity per annum.

However, the higher level of activity in roadways is not entirely because of the higher return incentives offered by the sector. A comparsion of the investment levels in roadways, would show that capital involved in a road sector is on an average far lower than that in the other sectors. Probably, one of the highest level of investments is on the much publicised Bandra-Worli Link project of Rs 480 crore in Mumbai. Now compare this with an investment of a similar amount in power and mining projects.

The survey also points out that there is a significantly higher level of involvement of promoters and creditors in pushing ahead the projects. Many a times, both the promoters and creditors have agreed to innovative schemes resulting in faster financial closure and completion of the project.