Your tax money flow to roads, highways likely increasing as projects take over a decade to cut the ribbon

More than 36% of road transport and highway projects are running behind schedule in India, making it the leading sector with most delays and debiting government's coffers more as costs keep escalating.
In the road transport and highways sector, 300 out of 825 projects are delayed, according to a latest flash report on infrastructure projects for June 2022. It is followed by railways, where 119 projects out of 173 are delayed, while for petroleum, 90 out of 142 projects are delayed.

The total cost of implementation of 825 road transport and highway projects is anticipated at Rs 5,37,163.29 crore now, implying a cost overrun of 9.4 per cent over Rs 4,90,792.42 crore when sanctioned, according to the report by the Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division.

IPMD, under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 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.

For railways, the total original cost of implementation of 173 projects when sanctioned was Rs 3,72,761.45 crore, which later increased to Rs 6,12,578.9 crore, a cost overrun of 64.3 per cent. The expenditure incurred on these projects till June 2022 was Rs 3,29,682.13 crore, or 53.8 per cent of the anticipated cost.

In the petroleum sector, the cost of implementation of 142 projects is estimated at Rs 3,93,008.38 crore, showing a cost overrun of 5.3 per cent from Rs 3,73,333.65 crore when sanctioned. Till June, Rs 1,33,493.59 crore, which is 34 per cent of the their anticipated cost, has been invested.

With a delay of 168 months, or 14 years, a 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor being constructed by Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (BHAVINI) is the most delayed project. The second most delayed project is PARBATI-II hydro electric project (4X200 MW) of the NHPC, which is delayed by 162 months. It is followed by Subansiri Lower hydro electric project (8X250 MW) of NHPC, with a delay of 155 months.

(With inputs from PTI)