149 central infrastructure projects battling time overruns: Government

NEW DELHI: A total of 174 central government infrastructure projects are expected to be commissioned this fiscal, with 149 battling time overruns, Parliament was informed today.

"174 projects are due for commissioning in the current financial year 2015-16 against their original/revised/anticipated dates of completion.

"Of these, 2 projects are due for commissioning ahead of schedule, 23 are due for commissioning on schedule and 149 are due for commissioning with time overruns," Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation V K Singh said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

The government through the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors ongoing central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above in time and cost overruns.

The monitoring is done on the basis of information provided by project implementing agencies, he said.

"As on June 1, 2015, 766 projects were on the monitor of this Ministry. Of these, 237 projects were reporting time overruns with respect to their original project implementation agencies," he added.

The government has said infrastructure development is its national priority and it needs funds up to USD 200 billion a year for the next 5-10 years to attain the desired infrastructure level.