by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Modi brings cheers to Maha, Fadnavis smiles
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￭ All 62 projects amounting to Rs. 3.53 lakh crore on track
￭ Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Prabhu working overtime
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Exclusive
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Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Apr. 12
Maharashtra never had it so good. The speed with which long pending infrastructure projects have been fast-tracked and being implemented in the State, was never witnessed before.
On the Centre's radar were 62 projects amounting to ` 3.53 lakh crore. Of these, 32 projects worth ` 1.09 lakh crores are now under implementation and have been taken off the PM's radar for monitoring. However, another 30 major projects amounting to `2.44 lakh crores are being directly monitored by Prime Minister's Projects Monitoring Group (PMG). The PM is directly monitoring these projects as these are inter-ministerial and inter-state issues. There are projects which have some last mile issues. Therefore, the PM has decided to keep it under the PMG as he doesn't want any time over run or cost over run.
A top official at the PMG said that these projects require constant monitoring at the PM's level because of their size and related issues. This official said barring a couple of them, most of the 62 projects will be completed during the next two to three years.
￭ 32 Projects under Projects Cost
implementation (Rs.Crores)
CIVIL AVIATION 2 26574 PETROLEUM 5 13014.37 POWER 9 30170.57 ROAD TRANS. & HIGHWAYS 7 5309.36 RAILWAYS 5 13262.87 STEEL 1 187.33 SHIPPING 2 7883 URBAN DEVLOPMENT 1 12500 Total 32 108901.5 PM Monitor"s 30 projects Projects Cost (Rs.Crores) COMMERCE 2 21300 COAL 1 1010.71 POWER 8 35213.02 PETROLEUM 1 5700 ROAD & HIGHWAYS 9 54965.34 RAILWAYS 3 80177 SHIPPING 2 1609 URBAN DEVELOPMENT 4 44093 Total 30 244068.07
The PM's Project Monitoring Group (PMG) tracks all stalled investment projects, both in the public and private sectors. Its task is to remove implementation bottlenecks in these projects. The PMG has put 768 projects under its lens across the country. Of these, the PMG already cleared 378 projects totaling ` 13.29 lakh crore. But it's the Maharashtra which topped the rank with clearances and implementation of 62 projects totaling ` 3.53 lakh crores. Maharashtra has the distinction of perhaps the only state in the country which has received maximum support of the Modi government in project clearance and fast-tracking them.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has also been doggedly pursuing pending projects with various Central ministries & departments.
Another reason of Maharashtra achieving its objective is that surface transport & shipping minister Nitin Gadkari, railway minister Suresh Prabhu and power minister Piyush Goyal went out of their way to help the State. All these ministers belong to Maharashtra. In addition, environment & forest minister Prakash Javadekar also helped in clearing all environment hurdles crated during the UPA regime.
The work on these projects in power, surface transport, railways, metro rail and other key areas are at the various stages of completion. It was found that at least 10 projects have been delayed for 7-12 years. Modi is determined that delays in project completion is a thing of the past and there is no cost over-run either.
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