Pranab to keep web eye on infra projects

NEW DELHI: With the focus of the UPA government shifting to timebound completion of its action plans, the finance ministry is set to revive a webenabled infrastructure monitoring system where it would help mandarins in North Block assess progress of a project at the click of a mouse.

Having the capability of GIS mapping, the UN-supported initiative would help officials in the finance ministry to identify causes of delay and the point of disruption, if any, in case some implementing agency is missing deadlines.

The system, developed by the department of economic affairs in the finance ministry primarily for monitoring externally aided projects, has the capability of GIS mapping giving the overall picture of infrastructure projects being implemented in a particular state up to the district level.

The project, called coordination and decision support system (CDSS), is designed in a manner where it can generate reports and charts with different permutations and combinations as per the requirement of the government . It allows uploading actual project pictures and documents. The software is able to track both financial flows and the physical progress.

All stakeholders such as the implementing agencies in states, the department of economic affairs which is monitoring the progress, and other states and central ministries concerned have been given passwords where each can on its own upload data related to its field.

However, pilot projects launched in four states earlier did not take off owing to disinterest shown by various stakeholders in uploading required information in the database. This time, however, there is a proposal to make it legally binding on all the agencies concerned to adhere to the government���s instructions on online submission of progress reports within a deadline.