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The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its latest report for July 2022 has said that as many as 386 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 4.7 lakh crore. According to the Ministry, which monitors infrastructure projects of Rs 150 crore and above, out of 1,505 projects, 386 reported cost overruns and as many as 661 projects were delayed.

The report stated that total original cost of implementation of the 1505 projects was Rs 21,21,793.23 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 25,92,537.79 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,70,744.56 crore (22.19% of original cost). It mentioned that the expenditure incurred on these projects till July 2022 was Rs 13,50,275.69 crore, or 52.08 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects. However, the number of delayed projects decreases to 511 if delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion.

Further, it showed that for 581 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported. Out of the 661 delayed projects, 134 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, 114 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 289 projects for 25-60 months and 124 projects have been delayed for 61 months and above. The average time overrun in these 661 delayed projects is 41.83 months.