Over 200 railway projects report cost overrun of Rs 1.82 lakh crore

New Delhi: Railway projects account for around 60 per cent of the 343 central sector projects that are facing cost overrun of Rs 1.82 lakh crore for various reasons.

As per the latest flash report of the statistics and programme implementation ministry, 204 projects of railways are facing total cost overrun of Rs 1.82 lakh crore.

The ministry monitors central sector projects with an expenditure of Rs 150 crore and above. According to the report, up to April this year the total original cost of these 204 projects was Rs 1,29,339.96 crore.

The total anticipated cost of these projects is estimated at Rs 3,12,026.83 crore which indicates overall cost escalation by 141.25 per cent. The ministry monitored 330 projects of Indian Railways in April.

The report stated that 46 of these projects reported time overrun or delay of 3 months to 261 months. After railways, power sector reported second highest incidence of overall cost overrun. Of the 114 projects monitored by the ministry in the power sector, 47 reported cost overrun of Rs 70,940.81 crore.

The total original cost of these 47 projects was Rs 1,84,243.07 crore, which escalated to total anticipated cost of Rs 255,183.88 crore. The report stated that out of the 114 power sector projects, 61 reported time overrun (delay) of 2 months to 135 months.