Big infra projects held up at various stages

New Delhi: A total of 217 big-ticket projects worth Rs 9 lakh crore are stuck at various stages of implementation. Significantly, all these projects are under the watch of Prime Minister Office’s (PMO) and the largest number of projects belong to the railways, highways and the power sectors.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the need to resolve all the bottlenecks holding up projects, especially large infrastructure sector projects, the huge pendency has added to the concerns of the PMO.

According to information available with The Asian Age, the railway sector has the largest number of 59 projects lying pending and their total worth is Rs 2 lakh crore. These are followed by 57 highways projects worth Rs 1.36 lakh crore which are yet to be completed.  

There are 37 power sector projects stuck at various stages of completion and they are estimated to be worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

Then there are 17 coal projects (worth Rs 60,000 crore), 16 coal projects (worth Rs 63,000 crore) and nine steel projects (worth Rs 64,000 crore), which are awaiting completion, according to the data.

Other sectors whose projects are stuck include urban development, shipping, housing, tourism, health, environment and water resources.

Top sources said that though these projects are the primary focus of Prime Minister’s Project Monitoring Group, they have been delayed owing to several reasons.

Some of the reasons for their delay are: environment and forest clearances and land acquisition, which take time in coming. Similarly eco-sensitive zone clearances, tree-cutting permissions, road crossing of pipelines and transmission lines and shifting of utilities have been listed as some of the major reasons for delay in these projects, sources pointed out.

Mr Modi examines almost every month the delayed projects through video conferencing with top secretaries of Union ministries as well as chief secretaries. During these meetings, the aim is to take up issues holding up projects with the state concerned and resolve them through direct interaction with officials.

All the same, sources privy to development told this correspondent that often some key reasons delaying a project, get glossed over as too many projects are discussed simultaneously. As a result, the actual position of a particular project does not get reflected.