The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division has just released a report about big infrastructure projects in the Central Sector, which cost 150 crore rupees or more.
The latest report for November 2023 stated the 1,831 projects the division currently monitors include 58 new projects added during the month. The month also saw the completion of 11 projects (10 road projects and 1 coal project). Of the 1,831 projects, 845 projects are running behind schedule, and 152 of them are even more delayed than they were last month. Among these 152 projects, 41 are mega projects with cost of Rs 1,000 crore or more.
The total initial cost of these 1,831 projects was Rs 25,10,577.59 crore rupees. It’s now expected that they will cost Rs 29,50,997.33 crore rupees to finish, which means there’s an overall cost overrun of Rs 4,40,419.74 crore rupees, which is 17.54 percent more than the original cost. Till 30 November 2023, the project promoters have already spent Rs 15,58,038.07 crore rupees, which is 52.80 percent of what it’s expected to cost to finish these projects.
Out of all these projects, only 55 are ahead of schedule, 623 are on track, 845 are delayed, 421 have gone over budget, and 264 are both behind schedule and over budget compared to their original plans. However, if you calculate the delay based on the most recent schedule for completion, the number of delayed projects drops to 629. Furthermore, 308 projects haven’t reported when they will be finished or how long it will take.
Among the delayed projects, 204 of them (24 percent) are delayed by 1 to 12 months, 198 (23 percent) are delayed by 13 to 24 months, 322 (38 percent) are delayed by 25 to 60 months, and 12 (14 percent) have been delayed for more than 60 months. On average, these delayed projects are behind schedule by 36.64 months.
