As many as 458 government infrastructure projects out of a total of 1,817, were hit by a cost overrun and 831 projects faced delay in May this year, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI)’s report revealed.

The MoSPI, which monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above, through its official report for May 2024, revealed that the total original estimated cost of implementation of 1,817 projects was Rs 27,58,567.23 crore, Business Standard reported.

However, MoSPI’s latest report disclosed that the revised estimated cost for the completion of all the projects is likely to be Rs 33,29,647.99 crore, which implicates an additional expense of Rs 5,71,080.76 (20.70 per cent of original cost).

The ministry's report showed that till May 2024, the expenditure incurred on these projects is Rs 1,707,190.15 crore, which accounts for 51.3 per cent of the revised anticipated cost of the projects.

The report showed that of the 831 delayed projects, 245 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, 188 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 271 projects for 25-60 months, and 127 projects for more than 60 months.

Altogether the average time delay in all 1,817 government projects is 35.1 months. The report has attributed the reason for time delays in the projects to land acquisition, environmental clearance, financial issues, contractual/internal issues, manpower shortage and litigation issues.

However, the report added that the number of delayed projects decreased to 554, provided the delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion.