Develop mechanism to speed up projects: Govt

However, he did not give further details of the proposed co-ordination mechanism.

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As many as 85 stalled projects from the power, steel, roads and ports sectors came up for discussion at the meeting called by the Finance Ministry.

With projects of over Rs 18 lakh crore remaining stuck and non-performing assets of public sector banks rising to 5.33 per cent, the Finance Ministry, the Reserve Bank of India and banks on Tuesday decided to put in place a co-ordination mechanism to revive stalled projects.

The joint meeting of officials from the RBI, Finance Ministry and public sector banks reviewed the status of 85 mega projects involving an investment of Rs 3.51 lakh crore and decided that all the bankers in the Joint Lender Forum (JLF) — the mechanism to resolve stressed assets — will now have to follow the decision taken by the consortium leader.

“The meeting was to understand the reasons for stress in infrastructure projects, the factors affecting the health of such projects and to put in place a coordinated mechanism for dealing with the stressed projects,” said financial services secretary Hasmukh Adhia.

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However, he did not give further details of the proposed co-ordination mechanism.

As many as 85 stalled projects from the power, steel, roads and ports sectors came up for discussion at the meeting called by the Finance Ministry. “Only 4 per cent of projects discussed today were classified by lenders as NPAs,” Adhia said in a press conference at the RBI headquarters. “This is a preventive exercise… all the problems are common to many of them and we want to address those common problems by intervention of policy measure by the ministry or some collective measure by banks,” Adhia said.

RBI Deputy Governor SS Mundra, special secretary at the Union Power Ministry RN Choubey, State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, Indian Banks Association chairman TM Bhasin and over a dozen public sector lenders also partcipated in the meeting to review the stalled projects.

SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said if such meetings happen at regular intervals, many things can be put on fast-track and issues can be resolved quickly. “We were also glad to know about the progress that has been made in all of those areas,” she said. “In power projects, fuel and PPA are issues, while in road projects, land acquisition, clearances and bill payments are the issues. In port projects, evacuation is a problem.”