By Nantoo Banerjee
There is little to be excited about the union cabinet’s latest approval of five new infrastructure projects with a total estimated cost of Rs.13,041 crore. The projects look very essential for development. But, going by the past experience there is no guarantee that they will be executed in time to serve their purpose. The government data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) shows that as many as 1,847 major infrastructure projects (each costing over Rs.150 crore) are facing a cumulative cost overrun of Rs. 4.92 lakh crore as they could not be started in time for a host of reasons. The huge cost overrun is due to the massive time overrun. Original costs of these projects have become almost irrelevant now. Ideally, the government should try to execute these pending projects as early as possible before taking up new ones.
A good number of those extremely slow-moving projects can be branded as political projects with little connection to existing realities with respect to their execution. Several of them were part of the election agenda of ruling parties, both in states and the Centre, focusing typically on economic development and employment generation. They were generally used as vocal tonic more to energize electorates than for practicality of the projects and their eventual execution schedule. Large infrastructure projects are frequently announced ahead of elections to signal development, shape public sentiment, and energize voters. While many of them serve genuine long-term economic goals, critics often view pre-election timelines as politically driven, leading to persistent challenges with project planning, funding, and execution. Governments use grand project announcements to emphasize their competence and momentum before polls open. Laying foundation stones creates high-visibility events that help rally local party workers and voters.
Most such pre-poll projects, focusing on large investments and social return, shift public debates away from past shortcomings to future prosperity. These rushed announcements often bypass thorough feasibility, environmental issues, and land acquisition hurdles. They generally suffer from severe cost overruns and missed deadlines due to poor initial groundwork. Capital allocations may fall far short of requirement after the political incentive of the election cycle fades. However, if the political parties in the government return to power, they try their best to execute such projects though they may not meet the time and cost projections. The practice continues. The problem arises when a ruling party loses the election. Its opposition in power rarely pays much attention to such projects even if they are genuinely needed for development.
Interestingly, in the run-up to the 2024 general election the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government went into an unprecedented infrastructure projects inauguration spree, declaring schemes worth over Rs 11 lakh crore in the first 75 days of 2024. Defending the massive project investment push, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had remarked, “this 10 years’ work is just a trailer. We have a long way to go”. Unveiling such a large investment resolution in less than three months before the national election far outpaced historical pre-poll expenditure and project rollouts by all previous union governments. The projects focussed heavily on national highways, railways (including multiple Vande Bharat trains), semiconductor fabrication units, oil and gas, and thermal power projects. Departmental ministers and bureaucracy were put on fast-track delivery modes, aiming to institutionalize rapid execution and signal administrative continuity under the banner of Viksit Bharat. By stating that a decade of governance was merely an appetizer or trailer, the Prime Minister set a high-expectation tone for a potential third term, emphasizing future delivery over past completion.
Yet, the fact, in the government’s own admission, remains that the cost of the pending 1,847 highly-monitored central sector projects under implementation has climbed by Rs.4.92 lakh crore. The transport and logistics sector projects, numbering 1,341, are among the worst affected. The basic causes of delays include land acquisition, regulatory approvals, and rising input costs. Protracted land disputes and clearance hurdles stalled early ground-work. Slow inter-ministerial coordination delayed final go-aheads. The time overrun impacted input costs due to global and local price volatility for steel, cement, and fuel inflating financial cost estimates mid-way.The cumulative spending on the projects so far has topped the Rs. 21.90-lakh crore mark. Only about 39 percent of the projects have crossed 80 percent physical progress.
No one questions the importance of the five additional infrastructure projects announced by the government ahead of a series of state elections. The legislative polls are due in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh, next year. The new package includes four railway multitracking projects costing Rs.9,450 crore to quad-track sections of the Howrah–Chennai high-density corridor, and one highway project to expand the NH-22 to four lanes in Bihar costing Rs. 3,590.73 crore. The multitracking railway projects will add 410-km distance connecting over 6,400 villages and adding 76 million tonnes of extra freight per year by 2030-31. The highway project (NH-22) will lead to four-laning of an 82.6-km stretch from Muzaffarpur via Sitamarhi to Sonbarasa near the Nepal border. One only hopes that these small but important infrastructure projects are completed in time.
It must be stated that the government must pay more attention to completion of old infrastructure projects than starting new ones to save public money, prevent massive cost overruns, and reduce severe implementation delays. Many ongoing roads, railways, and urban developments are stuck for years, blocking growth and wasting taxpayers’ funds. The pending old projects need to be completed first to prevent further cost overrun and ensure faster returns on money already spent. While new projects still make sense in high growth areas and national security-related border roads and defence assets, completion of old projects must become the highest priority before the government. (IPA Service)
