Representational file picture.
| Photo Credit: M. Periasamy
As many as 408 infrastructure projects, every entailing an funding of ₹150 crore or extra, have been hit by cost overruns of greater than ₹4.80 lakh crore in May 2023, an official report stated.
According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which displays infrastructure projects value ₹150 crore and above, out of 1,681 projects, 408 reported cost overruns and as many as 814 projects have been delayed.
“Total original cost of implementation of the 1,681 projects was Rs 24,16,872.28 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 28,96,947.15 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,80,074.87 crore (19.86 per cent of original cost),” the Ministry’s newest report for May 2023 stated.
According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects until May 2023 was ₹15,23,957.33 crore, which was 52.61% of the anticipated cost of the projects.
However, it said that the quantity of delayed projects decreased to 607 if delay was calculated on the idea of the most recent schedule of completion.
Further, it said for 419 projects neither the yr of commissioning nor the tentative gestation interval has been reported.
Out of the 814 delayed projects, 200 have general delays in the vary of 1-12 months, 183 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 300 projects for 25-60 months and 131 projects have been delayed for greater than 60 months.
The common time overrun in these 814 delayed projects is 37.04 months.
Reasons for time overruns as reported by numerous challenge implementing companies embrace delay in land acquisition, delay in acquiring forest and surroundings 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 legislation and order issues have been among the many different causes.
The report additionally cited state-wise lockdowns as a result 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 companies should 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.
