Big promises, little expenditure: A look at the status of Capital’s key projects

ROAD REPAIRS, mega shopping festival, revamp of markets: Over the past two years, the Aap-delhi government had announced schemes promising “infrastructural redevelopment” and “generation of 20 lakh jobs” — several, however, failed to take off.

Going by the budget outlay and expenditure for 2023-24 (April to February) prepared by the Planning Department, between April 2023 and February 2024, the government has either spent very little on some of these key promises or nothing at all.

The Delhi government did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.

To be sure, several of these projects are stuck because of the stand-off between the government and bureaucrats following the GNCTD Act amendment — which removed ‘services’ from the Delhi government and bolsters the Centre's control over the administration through the L-G — and changes in ministerial

portfolios.

With the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi a little over a month away, and the Delhi Assembly polls coming up next year, The Indian Express looks at some big-ticket projects and their status:

Road revamp: The 2023 Budget, which proposed a ‘clean, beautiful, and modern Delhi’, allocated around Rs 22,000 crore for major infrastructure projects. One project

to upgrade and maintain 1,400 km of arterial roads for 10 years.

According to documents, a budget estimate (2023-24) of Rs 1,300 crore was allocated for strengthening, repair, re-carpeting of roads having right of way lesser than 30 metres, the Ring Road, the Outer Ring Road and arterial roads. The project, however, was stalled due to several hurdles and the involvement of multiple departments and ran into funding issues. In revised estimates, funds were slashed by more than half to Rs 352.51 crore, of which the department has spent around Rs 349 crore.

Shopping festival: An amount of Rs 100 crore was allocated, as per budget estimates, but the expenditure is zero, documents show. Sources said the project, announced by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in 2022, was scheduled for January-february 2023 but has been “scrapped”.

Rejuvenation of drains: Rs 20 crore was allocated in the budget estimates for the project, but this was cut in the revised and modified estimates to Rs 2 crore. Of this, the department only spent Rs 57.47 lakh.

Rs 9 crore was allocated for major drainage works but only Rs 4.43 lakh has been spent till February. Moreover, Rs 81 crore was allocated as grant-in-aid to the Delhi Jal Board for Yamuna rejuvenation. Data shows that only 26.77% of this was spent on the project.

Waterlogging is a major issue in the national capital. The city last year witnessed unprecedented flooding leading to the closure of key roads like the Ring Road which connects ITO, Kashmere Gate ISBT and Pragati Maidan.

New bus depots, terminals: A budget estimate of Rs 900 crore was allocated. This was revised in the modified estimates to Rs 850 crore — only 405 crore has been spent.

Other projects: A budget estimate of Rs 90.1 crore was allocated for a slew of projects in 2022 — Delhi film policy, international film festival, aam aadmi canteens, redeveloping Gandhi Nagar market into a garment hub, electronic city, start-up festival, and cloud kitchen. Except for the film festival, no money was utilised on these schemes.

For the festival, Rs 30 crore was allotted in the budget estimates which was increased in the revised estimates to around Rs 79 crore. Only Rs 11 crore was spent. “The project was scheduled to take off last August at Siri Fort Auditorium around the G20 summit, but it was delayed following a change in ministerial portfolios,” said a senior official.