The cost of 238 major projects of the union government have almost doubled from the original estimate of Rs.2.4 lakh crore to Rs. 4.6 lakh crore, according to latest official data. The number of projects exceeding the budget surged 43 per cent by March 2016 over a period of four years, the data on projects costing Rs.150 crore or more showed.
“The causes for time and cost overruns are project-specific, depend on a variety of technical, financial and administrative reasons, and differ from project to project,” Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Statistics and Programme Implementation V.K. Singh informed the Lok Sabha.
The number of Central projects that have overshot their deadline for completion increased by 31 per cent,from 260 as on April 1, 2012 to 341 as on March 1, 2016. The data showed while 166 central projects had overshot their budget as on April 1, 2012, it increased to 238 as on March 1, 2016. However, while the absolute number of projects which overshot their targets had increased over time, their proportion in the total number of projects had declined, showing an improvement in this regard. While projects exceeding their budgets made up 30 per cent of total projects above Rs.150 crore as on April 1, 2012, that proportion fell to 22 per cent by March 1, 2016.
Similarly, projects exceeding their deadlines made up 47 per cent of total projects being monitored as on April 1, 2012. This declined to 32 per cent as on March 1, 2016.
Most cost and time-overruns pertained to the infrastructure sector with the Railways contributing 68.5 per cent of projects overshooting the budget as on March 1, 2016, up from 56 per cent four years ago.
The power sector contributed the next-highest with9.4 per cent as on March 1, 2016, down marginally from the 10.5 per cent as on April 1, 2012.
The road sector contributed 7.7 per cent of projects facing cost-overruns as on March 1, 2016. As many as 39 per cent of the projects were running behind schedule compared with 32 per cent four years ago.
At the end of the 11th Plan period, the projects overshooting their budgets needed an extra Rs.1.2 lakh crore which rose to Rs.2.2 lakh crore by March 1, 2016.
