During the December quarter of 2023, 448 infrastructure projects with an investment of Rs 150 crore or more were affected by cost overruns of more than Rs 5.55 lakh crore, as per the Quarterly Project Implementation Status Report (QPISR) on Central Sector Projects. The report has detailed information on the 1,897 infrastructure projects.
Out of 1,897 projects, 56 projects were ahead of schedule, 632 projects were on schedule, and 902 projects were delayed with respect to the original schedule of completion. The report further stated that for 307 projects, either original or the anticipated date of completion was not reported or had lapsed.
The report stated that the total expenditure on December 31, 2023 was reported Rs 16,89,400.92 crore, that is 53.22% of the total anticipated completion cost and 63.9% of the original cost.
What is QPISR report?
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation prepares the QPISR report and the report has detailed information on the 1,897 infrastructure projects. For these 1,897 projects, a total outlay of Rs 3,70,983.54 crore has been allocated for 2023-24.
Out of these 1,897 projects, 448 projects have a cost overrun of Rs 5,55,352.41 crore, which means 65.2% of their sanctioned cost. While 292 projects have reported an overrun of Rs 2,89,699.46 crore, with regard to the latest approved cost. Further, 276 projects are having both time and cost overruns.
The anticipated completion cost of these 1,897 projects is reported to be Rs 31,74,489.91 crore.
Moreover, the percentage of delayed projects in the quarter ending December 2022 was 56.70% while it declined to 47.55% in the third quarter of FY24. Similarly, the percentage of cost overrun also reduced from 21.42% to 20.1%. While the cost overruns due to general price escalation could not be avoided, the cost escalation on account of delay could be minimised, the report stated.
Reasons for time overrun:
As per the reports by various project implementing agencies, the reasons for time overrun are following:
- Delay in land acquisition
- Obtaining forest and environmental clearances
- Law and order problems
- State-wise lockdown due to COVID-19
(with PTI inputs)
