Of the 122 major road projects currently being executed,105 are running behind schedule. While 60 have been delayed by over two years,16 of these are behind schedule by more than five years. Similarly,44 of the 82 major power projects are facing delays,15 of them by more than two years. These figures have been quoted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,which monitors all central projects worth over Rs 150 crore,while urging the concerned ministries to review the implementation of these crucial infrastructure projects with a view to improving their time schedules. The Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation,Dr M S Gill,has written identical letters to three of his cabinet colleagues Roads and Transport Minister C P Joshi,Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde bringing these crippling delays to their notice. In the petroleum sector,Gill has listed 70 projects,of which 31 are running behind schedule. Gill said these results were based on data available till February this year. I would request you to review the projects which have suffered delays of more than one year,so that implementation of these projects improves and the project authorities complete them without further delay. I would be happy to send a senior officer to attend your review meeting for effective coordination with your Ministry,if you so desire, says his letter. I would also request that project authorities may upload the specific project-wise reasons for the delays in the OCMS (online computer monitoring system),so as to enable more effective monitoring, he says. Gill told his ministerial colleagues that he had written to the state governments to constitute high-powered committees to resolve problems such as land acquisition,clearing of encroachments,shifting of utilities,obtaining of environment or forest clearances etc in order to facilitate faster implementation of infrastructure projects and mitigate time and cost overruns. It is heartening to note that the chief ministers have responded in a very positive manner and in some states,the committees have already been constituted. The project authorities can approach the committees in respective states to resolve such issues, he said.
