The latest flash report for the infrastructure projects for September 2022 threw light on the neglected state of affairs in the road transport and highway sectors, where 262 out of 835 projects are delayed; in railways, 115 out of 173 projects are delayed; and in the petroleum sector, 89 out of 140 projects are delayed.
The road transport and highway sectors account for about 31% of projects, i.e., the maximum delay has been reported.
The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) is mandated to monitor the central sector infrastructure projects costing more than 150 crores or upto that amount based on the information provided by the Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) by the project implementing agencies.
The IPMD comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation and is responsible to keep a check on the number of projects completed and ongoing sanctioned by the government.
This report showed that the Muneerabad-Mehboobnagar rail project is the most delayed rail project, having been delayed by about 276 months.
The second most delayed is the Srinagar-Udhampur- Baramulla rail project which got delayed by about 247 months.
The third most delayed project is the Belapur-Seawood-Urban electrified double lines which are delayed by 228 months. These delays account for a duration of about 23 and 20 years which is a massive amount of time.
In financial terms, for the road transport and highway projects, the original total cost of 835 projects implementation when sanctioned was 4,94,300.45 crore which was subsequently anticipated at Rs. 5,26,482 crore which implies an additional cost overrun of 6.5%.
The expenditure incurred on these projects till 2022 is Rs.3,21,980 crore which is about 61.2% of the anticipated cost of projects.
Similarly, for the railways and petroleum sectors the total cost of implementation of 173 projects and 140 projects respectively. The expenditure incurred on these projects is about 1,38,460.78 crore which is 365 of the anticipated cost of the projects.
These data pointers reveal the stark reality that the world in which we live now must be revised with facts and figures, it is true that most of the projects are delayed.
Still, a delay of about 23 years which has caused a huge financial burden on the government which will incur these costs from its countries citizens in the form of different taxes and other methods is an eye-opener fact that we fail to realise.
The actual expenditure done on the delayed projects clearly reveal how a little delay can lead to a huge increase in the completion of these projects. As vigilant citizens, we need to understand that a proper system of checks and balances and monitoring is the need of the hour as roads are the lifelines of our country.
For instance, the Bharatmala project which envisaged to connect of strategic and tourism-related important roads and freight corridors is an ambition which will provide seamless connectivity which in turn can lead to our nation’s progress coupled with supporting budding businesses.
Thus making travel faster and more reliable saving most of our crucial time which can be engaged in productive activities as we are towards the vision of becoming a 6 trillion dollar economy of the world from a developing nation.
