Industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has submitted a list of 62 stalled projects to the project management group (PMG), which was set up by the Government to fast-track infrastructure projects.
The projects, each with a size of Rs 1,000 crore or more, have total investments of over Rs 3.93 lakh crore. Among these, 27 are in the power sector. These include the Rs 33,000-crore Jaitapur civil nuclear energy plant, Reliance Power’s Jharkhand Integrated Power project, and several large projects of Tata Power, Essar, Lanco, and Adani groups.
Land acquisition, fuel supply and environmental clearances are the major reasons cited by the promoters as hurdles, along with mining and other issues.
“CII has been requesting fast-tracking of at least 50 large projects to unlock investments and boost growth,” Chandrajit Banerjee, Director-General of CII, said.
Appreciating the clearance of 17 large infrastructure projects in the last two weeks by the PMG, Banerjee hoped this would have a multiplier impact on the economy.
Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman of Feedback Infrastructure Services, said while the decision of Government to form the PMG was indeed significant, as regular and effective monitoring was critical to reinvigorate the growth momentum.
“Given the current scenario, it becomes important to award projects only after securing sovereign clearances to accelerate implementation of projects,” he suggested.
Apart from power projects, CII’s list includes 11 projects in the roads and highway sector, eight in the hydropower sector, five each in oil and gas and ports, four in cities/townships sector and one project each in airport and urban mobility.
Hydro projects are mostly delayed due to environmental issues, local resistance as well as forest clearances. For roads and highway projects, land acquisition is the major challenge, while state support agreements and borrow area permits, too, have been delayed.
Many other issues plague the sector, ranging from shifting of existing pipes to permissions for water usage. Delayed projects block available funds and lead to inefficiencies in capital use, besides adding to bank’s non-performing assets, CII said.
In May, another chamber, FICCI, submitted a list of over 50 delayed projects to the Cabinet Secretary. The projects, with investments above Rs 1,000 crore, are in sectors, such as roads, highways, mining, metals, oil and gas and power.