SME Times News Bureau | 30 Mar, 2022
Government
of India has prioritized the timely completion of large-scale
Infrastructure projects keeping infrastructure development as the
central pillar of growth and socio-economic advancement of the country.
With this vision in mind, the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) was
instituted which is currently housed in Invest India, Ministry of
Commerce and Industry.
PMG
is a unique institutional mechanism to facilitate resolution of issues
in infrastructure projects with investments upward of ₹ 500 crores
primarily by way of conducting regular review meetings with States and
Central Ministries.
Additionally, with the deployment of milestone-based
monitoring of projects on the PMG portal in November 2021, project
reviews have become more holistic, combining both issue resolution and
milestone-based monitoring to anticipate delays in projects, mitigating
time and cost overruns and identifying agencies/authorities responsible
for delays.
At
present, PMG is monitoring 1,362 under implementation projects with
total anticipated investment of approximately INR 47.55 lakh crore
spanning across key sectors like Road, Transport and Highways, Railways,
Petroleum and Natural Gas, New and Renewable Energy, etc.
Under the
guidance of senior officers from DPIIT, in FY 2021-22, 787 new projects
with an investment value of INR 19.6 lakh crore have been brought on PMG
for monitoring. And 44 projects with an investment value of INR 1.25
lakh crore have been commissioned.
PMG
has been convening regular review meetings between project proponents,
State Governments and Union Ministries to accelerate project
implementation through expeditious resolution of issues.
Since April
2021, PMG has organized 30 review meetings with nearly all State
Governments and Central Ministries. With the co-operation and active
participation of the State Governments and Ministry Officials, 374
projects with a value of approximately INR 17 lakh crore have been
reviewed during these meetings. As a result of regular reviews, 568
issues in 248 projects worth INR 12.20 lakh crores have been resolved.
Some
marquee projects where pending issues have been resolved include:
BharatNet, North East Gas Grid, Sivok Rangpo New Rail Line, and
Jagdishpur - Haldia & Bokaro - Dhamra Pipeline Project (including
Baruani Guwahati Pipeline Project).