Govt identifies 90 big-ticket lagging projects

New Delhi: Concerned over several big ticket infrastructure projects getting stalled, the Centre has identified around 90-odd projects belonging to the power, transport, mines and mineral sectors which are worth more than Rs 1,000 crore each, which need to be expedited. Out of these, 20 are government sector projects while the remaining 70 projects belong to the private sector.

According to highly-placed sources, government think-tank Niti Aayog on directions from the Centre, is learnt to have identified these projects on the basis of the fact that some work has begun on them and whose reasons for getting delayed are known.

Some of the main reasons range from lack of funds, environmental clearances, non-availability of raw material as well as land acquisition.

The Niti Aayog now plans to engage with the concerned stakeholders of these 90-odd projects and find out their actual status. A majority of these projects belong to the power sector, followed by the transport as well as the mines & mineral sectors, sources privy to the development informed this newspaper.

A high-level meeting to review the delayed projects was undertaken by the Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar recently, where it was decided that the prime focus would be on these 90 projects.

It is reliably learnt that while the thinktank reviewed as many as 1,000 stalled projects, the main focus was primarily on those projects whose reasons behind delays are available.

It is felt that expediting such projects would be easier as the reasons stalling them are known and therefore can be easily rectified, sources added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has specifically been concerned over delay in such major infrastructure projects,