The steering group appointed by the Prime Minister to accelerate infrastructure investment in its first meeting has set deadlines for award of projects such as Mumbai rail corridor and Navi Mumbai Airport, among others.
The projects are across railway, highway, airport, port and power sectors.
Many of these projects were proposed during the UPA-I period and have not been awarded yet.
The progress on the preparatory steps to ensure meeting of the project award deadline will be monitored on a regular basis, an official statement said on Thursday.
This will ensure that the Ministries or departments are clear about not just the final deadline but also all requisite steps such as land acquisition, environment clearance, that need to be completed so that there are no slippages.
The Principal Secretary to Prime Minister has directed all ministries/departments to nominate a nodal officer each, of the rank of a joint secretary or above, who will report on a weekly basis on the progress of their department's project(s). The names would be intimated to the Prime Minister’s Office by Friday, the statement said.
The meeting also decided that the Ministry of Railways will take a call on reissue of request for qualification (RFQ) for the Mumbai Elevated Rail Corridor Project within a week.
Besides, in addition to Navi Mumbai airport, the Ministry of Civil Aviation will make efforts to move ahead on Goa (Mopa) airport as well.
New airports
The Ministry will also work towards awarding the operate, maintain and transfer (OMT) contracts for four to five airports by March 31, 2014. These airports include Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Guwahati.