As many as 354 infrastructure projects, every entailing an funding of ₹150 crore or extra, have been hit by cost overruns of greater than ₹4.55 lakh crore, as per an official report.
According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which displays infrastructure projects value ₹150 crore and above, out of 1,449 projects, 354 reported cost overruns and as many as 821 projects had been delayed.
“Total original cost of implementation of the 1,449 projects was ₹20,69,658.30 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be ₹25,25,348.87 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of ₹4,55,690.57 crore (22.02% of original cost),” the ministry’s newest report for March, 2023 mentioned.
Also learn: 346 infrastructure projects show cost overruns of ₹4.46 lakh crore
According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects until March 2023, is ₹13,90,736.58 crore, which is 55.07% of the anticipated cost of the projects.
However, the quantity of delayed projects decreased to 616, if delay is calculated on the premise of the most recent schedule of completion.
Further, it said that for 333 projects neither the yr of commissioning nor the tentative gestation interval has been reported.
Out of the 821 delayed projects, 190 have general delays within the vary of 1-12 months, 177 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 325 projects for 25-60 months and 129 projects have been delayed for greater than 60 months.
The common time overrun in these 821 delayed projects was 37.79 months.
Reasons for time overruns as reported by numerous challenge implementing businesses embrace delay in land acquisition, delay in acquiring forest and atmosphere clearances, and lack of infrastructure help and linkages.
Delay in tie-up for challenge financing, finalisation of detailed engineering, change in scope, tendering, ordering and gear provide, and regulation and order issues had been among the many different causes.
The report additionally cited state-wise lockdowns on account of COVID-19 (imposed in 2020 and 2021) as a purpose for the delay in implementation of these projects.
It has additionally been noticed that challenge executing businesses are usually not reporting revised cost estimates and commissioning schedules for a lot of projects, which suggests that point/cost overrun figures are under-reported, it added.