More than 800 infrastructure projects are delayed in India leading to cost overruns of Rs 4.5 trillion as of December 2022.
According to a government report released in February 2023, the road transport and highways sector in India has the maximum number of delayed projects at 407.
The railways sector follows with 114 delayed projects, and the petroleum industry has 86 delayed projects.
The report was released by the Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD), which is responsible for monitoring central sector infrastructure projects costing over Rs 150 crore based on information provided on the Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) by project implementing agencies. The IPMD is under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The report revealed that out of 717 road transport and highways projects, 407 are delayed. Similarly, out of 173 railway projects, 114 are delayed, and in the petroleum sector, 86 out of 146 projects are behind schedule. The most delayed project is the Munirabad-Mahabubnagar rail project, which is delayed by 276 months.
The Belapur-Seawood-Urban Electrified Double Line is the third-most delayed project, running 228 months behind schedule.
The report further stated that a total of 823 projects are delayed with respect to their original schedules, and 346 projects reported cost overruns.
Additionally, 242 projects reported both time and cost overruns with respect to their original project implementation schedules. Out of the 159 projects that reported additional delays, 38 are mega projects costing over Rs 1,000 crore.
The report also provided cost-related details of the projects. In the road transport and highways sector, the total original cost of implementation of 717 projects was Rs 3,97,255.47 crore.
However, this was subsequently estimated to be Rs 4,14,400.44 crore, implying a cost overrun of 4.3 percent. The expenditure incurred on these projects until February 2023 was Rs 2,33,007.06 crore, which is 56.2 percent of the anticipated cost of the projects.
Similarly, in railways, the total original cost of implementation of 173 projects was Rs 37,2761.45 crore. This was subsequently estimated to be Rs 6,26,632.52 crore, implying a cost overrun of 68.1 percent.
The expenditure incurred on these projects until February 2023 was Rs 3,79,380.95 crore, which is 60.5 percent of the anticipated cost of the projects.
In the petroleum sector, the total original cost of implementation of 146 projects was Rs 3,67,615.67 crore, which was subsequently estimated to be Rs 3,85,117.08 crore, implying a cost overrun of 4.8 percent. The expenditure incurred on these projects until February 2023 was Rs 1,44,162.3 crore, which is 37.4 percent of the anticipated cost of the projects.
