New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said that 352 infrastructure projects with a total estimated cost of Rs 16.10 lakh crore have been evaluated through the Network Planning Group (NPG) mechanism to date.
Out of these 352 projects, 201 projects have been sanctioned and out of which, 167 projects are under implementation, said Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Jitin Prasada, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
The Network Planning Group (NPG), constituted under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP) framework, evaluates the critical infrastructure projects of the Central Government to ensure integrated planning, multimodality, inter-modality, synchronisation of efforts, last-mile connectivity, comprehensive development in and around the project location, data-driven decision-making, etc at the planning stage.
Finance Ministry’s Department of Expenditure made a provision of Rs 5,000 crore for disbursement among the states for infrastructure development in the form of 50 years interest-free loan.
According to the minister, monitoring of implementation of ongoing Central Sector Projects, including the infrastructure projects planned and evaluated under the PM Gati Shakti framework, costing Rs 150 crore and above are carried out by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Further, the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) has been set up with the objective of milestone-based monitoring of projects and expediting issue resolution and fast-tracking the execution of large-scale infrastructure projects (having an estimated cost of Rs 500 crore and above).
PMG has implemented a unique five-tier escalation framework that ensures issues are addressed at the appropriate level, beginning with the respective Ministry for regular issues and escalating up to the PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) forum for complex issues.
According to the minister, this approach streamlines the review mechanism, prevents duplication and enables higher authorities to focus on critical issues.
He further stated that to resolve bottlenecks and ensure the timely completion of projects, the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan has been integrated with the PMG, which has expedited the resolution of issues and regulatory bottlenecks in the implementation of the projects.
(IANS)
