Centre’s Project Monitoring Group reviews 40 key infrastructure projects
29 Aug 2022
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The Project Monitoring Group (PMG Invest India) headed by special secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), ministry of commerce and industry on Friday reviewed 40 critical infrastructure projects across India with issues enlisted for resolution with the ministry of environment, forest and climate change and the ministry of railways.
These included 11 projects previously reviewed under `PRAGATI’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several GatiShakti High Impact Projects as well.
The meeting, with active participation of senior officials from the ministry of forests, environment and climate change and the ministry of railways discussed issues relating to forest clearances, use of railway land, right of way etc. The two ministries provided cogent timelines for issue resolution. Additionally, officials from user agencies also provided perspectives on overall progress of projects. Notable among the projects reviewed include:
BharatNet- The broadband connectivity plan that seeks to bring broadband to 361,000 villages across 16 states and scheduled to be completed by 2025.
Hubli-Ankola New Line Project (164.44 km) - a super critical Railway project, which was stuck due to litigation issues regarding wildlife clearance given by the National Board of Wildlife.
Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor connecting Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi with Modipuram in Meerut passing through key towns such as Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Muradnagar and Modinagar in Uttar Pradesh covering a total length of 82.15 km.
Four laning of Bangalore-Chennai Expressway (NE-5), a 260.85 km 4-lane access-controlled road connecting Hoskote near Bengaluru, Karnataka with Sriperumbudur near Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Special Secretary, DPIIT reviewed 57 issues in 40 projects with an anticipated investment of approximately Rs3.37 lakh crore and emphasised upon the importance of timely completion of projects and the role of seamless coordination between the various departments of the central government to ensure that projects having high socio-economic importance are not delayed.
Special Secretary was particularly appreciative of the exemplary work done by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change in streamlining the regulatory process for obtaining environment/forest/wildlife clearances and extensive reforms taken in this regard for ensuring timely commissioning of infrastructure projects across India.
Infrastructure being the central cog in India’s growth journey and driving its socio-economic development, Government of India has prioritised the timely implementation and completion of large scale, high impact Infrastructure projects in India.
The Project Monitoring Group (PMG) was instituted by the central government with its emphasis on GatiShakti and the continuing focus on infrastructure development and resolving bottlenecks being faced in projects. Since its merger with DPIIT in 2019, PMG Invest India has taken new initiatives such as developing a modern technology portal for better project monitoring and faster issue resolution. It offers a unique institutional mechanism to facilitate resolution of regulatory bottlenecks in infrastructure projects with investments upward of Rs500 crore and do milestone-based project monitoring of the same.
