The cost of 1,424 Central government infrastructure projects across the country has spiked by 17.4 per cent owing to delays in implementation.

The cost of the projects has surged from Rs 1,817 crore estimated initially to Rs 2,134 crore on account of time overruns. Data sourced from the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation shows 37.8 per cent of the anticipated cost or Rs 8.07 billion has been already incurred.

Of the total pool of 1,424 projects, 444 are major ones with investment size exceeding Rs 1,000 crore. Their combined cost constitutes 80 per cent of the envisaged outlay.

The power, roads, railways and petroleum sectors had the maximum number of completed projects. Eighty five of the 101 projects in these sectors were commissioned by the end of December 2018.

“Delayed (projects) or projects without a definitive timeline of completion make up almost 75 per cent of the total projects under implementation. A total of 384 projects are delayed and 686 have no definitive timeline of implementation,” a report by CARE Ratings noted.

The report says there are 686 projects sans any definitive timeline. They are yet to report timelines or status of completion. They have little or no cumulative expenditure and their costs are taken into consideration while estimating the total cost of outstanding projects. The list includes 607 projects with no date of commissioning and 79 which only have tentative date of completion.

Projects worth Rs 448 crore, or 21 per cent of the total envisaged outlay, have more than one state as beneficiary. They have been categorized under multi-state projects. Maharashtra continues to top the list of beneficiary states, accounting for 9.3 per cent of projects by value being implemented in the country.

According the CARE Ratings report, the pace of implementation of projects has improved considerably through 2018-19. The 2019 elections proved to a major driver in accelerating the rate of execution. The report advocates higher fund outlay for roads, railways, petroleum and coal to meet residual expenditure cost worth Rs 1,020 crore. For these four sectors, the cumulative expenditure incurred continues to be in the range of 25-35 per cent.