PMO to soon clear projects worth Rs 20 lakh crore

In what could come as a major boost to the country’s infrastructure sector and the economy as on whole, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) reportedly will soon clear projects worth Rs 20 lakh crore. The report which is yet not confirmed has stated that the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) that works under the Prime Minister's Office has cleared 276 projects, stalled due to various reasons accounting for investment of nearly Rs 10 lakh crore, in the last two years, while another 258 projects, with investment of more than Rs 10 lakh crore, will be cleared soon.

Since 80% of clearance problems are state-level, PMO has reduced the number of such clearances from 63 to 31, and has asked all states to digitise the process of applying for these clearances. PMG, which was formed by the UPA government and put under the cabinet secretariat, was shifted to the PMO in September 2015. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants more private sector entrepreneurs to use the PMG portal. Roughly 20% of projects assessed by PMG are from the private sector.

States that have benefitted most from PMG clearances are Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. All states have been asked to create their own version of PMG portal for investment below Rs 1,000 crore.