More than 80 per cent of issues pertained to the state governments

Arun Goyal, Former Secretary to Government of India and Ex-Head of the Project Monitoring Group (PMG), had a long stint in the Group from October 2015 to February 2019.The group was tasked with fast-tracking, setting up and implementing large public, private and public-private partnership (PPP) projects by resolving a variety of issues. The group mainly dealt with projects with anticipated investment above Rs 10 billion (Rs 5 billion in case of projects with FDI). “The issues uploaded by project proponents on PMG’s portal were resolved through regular review,” says Goyal. “The review was carried through inter-ministerial subgroups and state-level meetings with respective chief secretaries or senior level-officers at state capitals or through video conference.Project proponents were also invited for these review meetings. During my three-and-a-half-year stint at PMG, more than 3,400 issues pertaining to over 720 projects were resolved under the mechanism.” Goyal shares more on solutions to avoid time and cost overruns, in conversation with SERAPHINA D’SOUZA...