The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its latest report for October 2019 has indicated that as many as 388 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have shown cost overruns to the tune of over Rs 4 lakh crore on account of delays and other reasons. The Ministry monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above. Of these 1,636 projects, 388 projects reported cost overruns and 563 projects time escalation.
According to the report, total original cost of implementation of the 1,636 projects was Rs 19,52,524.85 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 23,53,108.80 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of 4,00,583.95 crore (20.52 percent of original cost). It also noted that the expenditure incurred on these projects till October 2019 stood at Rs 10.32 lakh crore, which is 43.86 percent of the anticipated cost of the projects.
The report further stated that brief reasons for time overruns, as reported by various project implementing agencies, are delays in land acquisition, forest clearance and supply of equipment. Besides, it said there are other reasons like fund constraints, geological surprises, geo-mining conditions, slow progress in civil works, shortage of labour, inadequate mobilisation by the contractor, Maoist problems, court cases, contractual issues, ROU/ROW (right of use/right of way) problems, law and order situation, among others. It also observed that project agencies are not reporting revised cost estimates and commissioning schedules for many projects, indicating that time or cost overrun figures are under-reported.
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