As many as 343 infrastructure projects across the country have incurred cost overruns of over Rs 4.5 lakh crores. According to a report by news agency PTI, each project entails an investment of more than Rs 150 crore and due to the overrun, 835 projects have been delayed.
The total cost of implementing the 1,438 projects was estimated at Rs 20,35,794.75 billion. However, the project’s completion cost is expected to be around Rs 24,86,069.52 billion, which is 22.12 per cent higher than the original estimate, PTI quoted Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s December 2022 report.
Expenditure on these projects was around Rs 13,45,794.16 crores till December 2022 or about 54.13 per cent of the total cost. If the latest schedule of work is taken into account, the number of projects that have been delayed would decrease to 670.
It was revealed that out of the 835 projects that were delayed, 160 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, while 130 projects have been delayed for 61 months and above. Around 134 infra projects by the government have been delayed for 13-24 months, 411 projects for 25-60 months. or 342 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported.
According to the implementing agencies, various factors such as the delay in acquiring land and getting environment and forest clearances caused the cost overruns. Other factors such as the late submission of the project financing documents, the change in scope, the equipment supply and tendering process, and the law and order issues were additionally cited as the cause of the delays.
Moreover, for 342 projects neither the year in which the project started nor its tentative timeline has been reported. The report also mentioned the implementation of COVID-19 lockdowns as a reason for the delays in the projects’ implementation.
It was also reported that the companies undertaking the projects were not reporting the revised cost estimates and the commissioning schedules of the projects. This suggests that the figures for cost and time overruns are underreported.