This January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the 32nd interaction of PRAGATI—the ICT-based, multimodal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, involving the Centre and state governments. Nine delayed projects worth Rs 240 billion were reviewed in the meeting. These projects are spread across nine states: Odisha, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh—and three Union Territories. The projects include three from the Ministry of Railways, five from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and one from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Further, in the previous 31 PRAGATI interactions, a total of 269 projects with a total investment of Rs 12.30 trillion were reviewed by the Prime Minister.That said, despite CW’s continuous efforts, data on these projects was not made available.

Effective mechanism?
While the delay saga continues, PRAGATI has helped fast-track of stuck projects, leading to cost and time savings. “Many projects stuck for years have achieved completion, such as the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressway around Delhi, Pakyong Airport in Sikkim, the Panipat Jalandhar six-lane project and Phase 1 of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway,” observes Vijay Agrawal, Executive Director, Equirus Capital.

“The platform has reviewed and taken steps to remove bottlenecks in multiple projects covering an investment of over Rs 12 trillion,” says Shubham Jain, Group Head & Senior Vice-President, Corporate Ratings, ICRA. “While it would be difficult to quantify the impact of PRAGATI on project execution, it is certainly a positive initiative that can help resolve bottlenecks in some large projects.”

The PRAGATI mechanism for monitoring is an ongoing process. “After its implementation and until March 2018, cost overruns remained under 15 per cent,” according to Siva Subramanian, Director, Infrastructure & Project Finance, India Ratings & Research (Fitch Group).Given that projects are added and dropped over the years, he believes cost overrun is not the only metric to be measured. “Project completion is an important aspect for the assessment of success.”

From the perspective of a construction contracting company, Yogesh Kumar Jain, Managing Director, PNC Infratech, says, “PRAGATI is an effective and expedient project-monitoring framework mechanism reviewed monthly at the highest levels of both the Centre and state governments. It is learnt that several big-ticket infrastructure projects that have been stuck for years could be accomplished through this platform during the past five years. A programme of this nature and enormity will certainly instil confidence in any infrastructure implementation company like us in successful delivery of big-ticket projects.”

TABLE
Current status of some of the 269 projects reviewed under PRAGATI

Region	Project Name	State	Sector	Responsibility	Current Status
CentralIndia	Nigahi expansion project	Madhya Pradesh	Coal	M/o Coal	Completed
Central India	Transmission system of Raipur-Wardha	Chhattisgarh	Power	M/o Power	Completed
East India	Rail-cum-road bridge across Ganga	Bihar	Railways	M/o Railways	Rail section completed. Road section partially completed
East India	Rail-cum-road bridge across Ganga at Munger	Bihar	Railways	M/o Railways	Rail section completed. Road section to be completed by September 2021
East India	Doubling of Bhubaneshwar-Delang-PuriRail	Odissa	Railways	M/o Railways	Completed
East India	Paradip-Raipur-Ranchi Pipeline	Chhattisgarh, Odisha & Jharkhand	Oil & Gas	MoPNG	Under construction
East India	Four-lane Bhubaneshwar-Puri section of NH203	Odissa	Roads	MoRTH	Completed
South India	Strategic crude oil reserves of ISPRL	Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka	Oil & Gas	MoPNG	Completed
Northeast India	Gauge conversion (rail line connectivity Lumding-Silchar)	Assam	Railways	Railways	Completed
Northeast India	Pare Hydroelectric Project (110 mw) of NEEPCO	Arunachal Pradesh	Power	Power	Completed
North India	Six-lane highway Panipat-Jalandhar section of NH1 (291 km)	Haryana & Punjab	Roads	MoRTH	Completed
North India	Six-lane Eastern Peripheral Expressway (135 km)	Uttar Pradesh & Haryana	Roads	MoRTH	Completed
North India	330- mw KishangangaHydroelectric Project	Jammu & Kashmir	Power	Power	Completed
Southeast Asia	Construction of parliament building and salmadam in Afghanistan	Afghanistan	International	MEA	Completed
Southeast Asia	Kaladan multimodal transit transport &RihTedimroad projects	Myanmar	International	MEA	Under construction
South India	42-km Bangalore Metro Rail (BMRP) Phase 1	Karnataka	Urban Affairs	MoHUA	Completed
South India	KudgiSuper Thermal Power Plant Stage 1 (3× 800 mw)	Karnataka	Power	Power	Completed
West India	102-mw wind power project	Rajasthan	Renewables	MoPNG	Completed
West India	Indore to Gujarat-MP border section Of NH59	Gujarat & Madhya Pradesh	Roads	MoRTH	Completed

Source: Equirus Capital