Protracted delay in railways projects!

By M,Y,Siddiqui

Indian Railways 848 projects, each costing Rs.150 crore and more, has been delayed by an average of over three years. According to a latest flash report by the Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, out of 1, 820 projects being monitored, 56 are ahead of schedule, 618 on schedule, 431 projects reported cost overruns, and 268 projects reported both cost and time over-runs in terms of their original project implementation schedule.

The report informs that average time over-runs for the 848 delayed projects is 36.59 months, resulting in an anticipated completion cost which is over 18.5 percent higher than the original cost. The report cites the examples of Lalitpur-Satna-Rewa-Singrauli rail line project, delayed by over 16 years, and Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla project with a delay over more than 20 years. Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line was announced in the railway budget 1994-95. Since then it has taken 24 years, indicating the data fudge, for which the RSS Pariwar union government is notorious. Currently, trains are running on Udhampur-Katra and Srinagar-Baramulla. In between Banihal area is very deep and high terrenes area and at that a militancy infested difficult area resulting in both cost over-runs and time over-runs.

According to official sources, main reasons for project delays are law and order problems, delay in land acquisition, delay in environment and forest clearances, funding constraints, rehabilitation and resettlement issues, local body. Over 46 percent railways infrastructure projects are delayed , with average time over-runs of more than 36 months. Railways delays continue to plague the nation. In 2023,  the number of delayed railways infrastructural development had increased from 56 in 2022 to 98 in 2023.

Among 24 infrastructure sectors, railways rank second in the highet number 0f projects delayed. Road transport and highways sector stands first as revealed by the report. In 2023, the union government had said in the Rajya Sabha (Council of States or Upper House of Parliament) that delays in more than 800 infrastructure projects led to cost over-runs of Rs. 4.5 trillion as in December 2022. Government had planned 1,438 projects with an original cost of Rs. 20.4 trillion. This cost has increased to Rs. 24.9 trillion as in December 2022.

Ten most delayed  railways projects are: Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project, Kotlpalh-Narsapur rail project, Khurda Road-Bolangir railway project, Lalitpur-Satna-Rewa-Singrauli railway project, Kothapalli-Manohrabad railway line, Subansiri Lower Dam, Parbati-Hydro-electric Project, Seven of ten most delayed infrastructure projects in India are railways infrastructural projects broadly known as rail lines.

The year 2023 registered excellent performances of Indian Railways on various fronts like freight loading, freight revenue, rolling out of new Vande Bharat passenger trains, capital expenditure allocations, station redevelopment, Kavachh (anti-collision device) implementation, laying of tracks and electrification of entire rail lines.

Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors 11 key infrastructure projects of telecommunications, civil aviation, roads, petroleum and natural gas, fertilizers, shipping & ports, power, railways, steel and coal. Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division of the Ministry monitors all these most vital infrastructural projects!

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