Road transport and highways sector has maximum number of delayed projects: Govt report

New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI) The road transport and highways sector has the maximum number of delayed projects at 358, followed by railways at 111 and the petroleum sector at 87, showed a government report.

In the road transport and highways sector, 358 out of 769 projects are delayed. In railways, out of 173 projects, 111 are delayed, while in the petroleum sector, 87 out of 154 projects are running behind schedule, as per the latest flash report on infrastructure projects for November 2022.

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) is mandated to monitor central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above based on the information provided on the Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) by the project implementing agencies.

The IPMD comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The report showed that the Muneerabad-Mahaboobnagar rail project is the most-delayed project. It is delayed by 276 months.

The second-most delayed project is the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project, which is delayed by 247 months.

The third-most delayed project, Belapur-Seawood-Urban Electrified Double Line, is delayed by 228 months.

The flash report for November 2022 contains information on the status of the 1,476 central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above.

As many as 756 projects are delayed with respect to their original schedules and 304 projects have reported additional delays vis- -vis their date of completion reported in the previous month.

Of these 304 projects, 58 are mega projects costing Rs 1,000 crore and above.

About road transport and highways sector, the report stated that total original cost of implementation of 769 projects when sanctioned was Rs 4,33,744.86 crore, but this was subsequently anticipated at Rs 4,60,524.16 crore implying a cost overrun of 6.2 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till November 2022 was Rs 2,77,208.24 crore, or 60.2 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

Similarly, in railways, the total original cost of implementation of 173 projects when sanctioned was Rs 3,72,761.45 crore, which subsequently increased to Rs 6,24,583.37 crore, implying a cost overrun of 67.6 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till November was Rs 3,59,996.26 crore, which is 57.6 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

About petroleum sector, it stated that the total original cost of implementation of 154 projects was Rs 3,81,885.12 crore but this was subsequently anticipated at Rs 4,01,966.41 crore — a cost overrun of 5.3 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till November 2022 was Rs 1,48,897.69 crore, or 37 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.