Govt May Shut Down 116 Infrastructure Projects: Report

New Delhi: The Central government may completely shut down 116 infrastructure projects worth Rs 1.26 lakh crore.

According to a report in the Business Standard, land acquisition delays and Centre-state tussles have held up these projects for which capital expenditure of Rs 20,311 crore has already been incurred.

“These 116 projects feature in the list of those terminated, on hold, or bound for foreclosure. These may be removed from the Centre’s project-monitoring system, which has been created to expedite infrastructure execution,” says the article, citing an internal NITI Aayog report.

The report of the government’s apex public policy thinktank pointed out that most of those projects are in the railways and road sectors.

Fifty railways projects, which includes some approved as long as 48 years ago, have been put on back burner while 15 have not yet been okayed. In the road sector, 33 projects are likely to be closed or suspended, BS reported, adding that most of these pending projects will be replaced by new ones.

The delay in implementing railway projects has led to a 49% increase in cost over the years, to Rs 88,373 crore. Similarly, cost of stalled road projects has gone up by 6%.