Modi notices delays, will pull up mantris

● The PMO is annoyed at the delays and cost overruns in hundred of projects

Around 600 projects, involving more than ` 11 lakh crore and related to various sectors, like energy, power, coal, roads and highways, aviation and other infrastructure segments, are significantly delayed and many of them don’t even have a date for completion.

This has raised concerns within the Prime Minister’s Office ( PMO) and, according to sources privy to developments, ministers heading these ministries as well as the concerned top bureaucrats are likely to be pulled up for the delays at a high- level meeting scheduled tentatively for November 4.

According to details available with this newspaper, a total of about 700 projects are to be reviewed at the meeting. The original cost of these projects was around ` 10 lakh crore. However owing to delays and cost overruns, they now are valued at more than ` 11 lakh crore. Though around 100 projects of the 700 to be reviewed are said to be on schedule, roughly 300 are delayed. But what is more disturbing is that 320 projects don’t even have an exact date by which they are to be completed.

The PMO is annoyed at the delays and cost overruns in hundred of projects and sources within the government said there was a lot of hectic activity within the concerned ministries to ensure that something concrete can be presented before the PM at a November 4 review meet.