Cost overruns of Central government projects worth Rs 150 crore and above has declined to 19.1 percent in August, 2023 compared with 19.5 percent in the previous month. This marks the fourth consecutive month of replicating this trend. Nearly half of the projects were delayed in August.

Among the 1,762 projects listed, the anticipated cost at Rs 29.8 lakh crore exceeded the original cost by Rs 4.8 lakh crore, as per the report released by Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) on 19 September, 2023. Also, 54 percent of the projects have been delayed for over two years, with 830 delayed projects seeing an average time overrun of 36.96 months.

Railways witnessed the highest cost overruns among the ministry with 137 of 260 projects facing time overruns. The Roads Ministry faced overrun in 185 out of 945 projects. However, the average time overrun has reduced from last month by nearly a month.

While the main reasons for delay were delay in land acquisition and lack of infrastructure support and clearances, the report further noted that the Ministries must firm up cost and time overruns to keep costs under check.