411 infra initiatives present value overruns of Rs 4.31 trillion in Oct: Report

As many as 411 infrastructure initiatives, every entailing an funding of Rs 150 crore or extra, have been hit by value overruns of greater than Rs 4.31 trillion in October this yr, an official report mentioned.

According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which displays infrastructure initiatives value Rs 150 crore and above, out of 1,788 initiatives, 411 reported value overruns and 837 initiatives have been delayed.

“Total original cost of implementation of the 1,788 projects was Rs 24,78,446.60 crore, and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 29,09,526.63 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,31,080.03 crore (17.39 per cent of original cost),” the ministry’s newest report for October 2023 mentioned.

According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these initiatives until October 2023 was Rs 15,27,102.91 crore, which is 52.49 per cent of the anticipated value of the initiatives.

However, it acknowledged that the variety of delayed initiatives decreases to 628 if the delay is calculated on the idea of the newest schedule of completion.

Further, it mentioned that for 290 initiatives, neither the yr of commissioning nor the tentative gestation interval has been reported.

Out of the 837 delayed initiatives, 202 have total delays within the vary of 1-12 months, 188 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 324 initiatives for 25-60 months, and 123 initiatives have been delayed for greater than 60 months.

The common time overrun in these 837 delayed initiatives was 36.94 months.

Reasons for time overruns, as reported by varied mission implementing companies, embrace delay in land acquisition, delay in acquiring forest and surroundings clearances, and lack of infrastructure help and linkages.

Delays in tie-up for mission financing, finalisation of detailed engineering, change in scope, tendering, ordering and gear provide, and regulation and order issues have been among the many different causes.

The report additionally cited state-wise lockdowns resulting from COVID-19 (imposed in 2020 and 2021) as a cause for the delay in implementation of those initiatives.

It has additionally been noticed that mission executing companies should not reporting revised value estimates and commissioning schedules for a lot of initiatives, which suggests that point/value overrun figures are under-reported, it added.