India govt to spend ₹4.5 lakh crore more on infrastructure projects

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The government is expected to spend ₹4.46 lakh crore more on infrastructure projects than the original estimates, a report released by the infrastructure and project monitoring division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Tuesday said.

The original cost of 1,423 projects being monitored by the ministry was estimated at ₹ 20.38 lakh crore, but anticipated cost has risen to ₹24.85 lakh crore, the report said.

Until February, the government had already incurred ₹13.63 lakh crore on these projects, which is more than half of the anticipated cost. The ministry monitors projects with a value of ₹150 crore and more.

While 823 projects were delayed with respect to original schedule, the report highlighted that 46 projects were completed in February and 12 new projects were added.

An ET analysis shows that project additions have slowed compared to the previous year. The government has added 22.7% fewer projects between April-January this fiscal, compared to the same period in FY22.

The government has added 199 projects in the current fiscal (till January) with an original cost of ₹1.68 lakh crore.

Of 823 delayed projects, nearly 60% were delayed for over two years. The average time of delay was 38.63 months. Even though the number of delayed projects has risen drastically compared to last year – when 657 of 1,565 projects were delayed – the average time overrun has declined.

In February 2022, average time overrun of delayed projects was 42.6 months. (ET)