FM to review status of large infra projects today

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SME Times News Bureau | 20 Dec, 2011
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will review today the status of eight large infrastructure projects including those in the power sector, which are getting delayed due to regulatory clearances.

"Banks have sanctioned loans for eight projects, but these are yet to be implemented due to various regulatory approvals which are pending. While seven of them envisage investments between Rs 1,000-1,500 crore, one is over Rs 5,000 crore," a Finance Ministry is quoted by a news agency report.

The total cost of these projects is Rs 13,867 crore. A number of public sector banks have approved loans worth Rs 6,124 crore for these projects.

Projects which are slated to come up for review include: Nagai Power Plant (Rs 1,440 crore) in Tamil Nadu, Ideal Energy (Rs 1,391 crore) in Maharashtra, OCL Iron and Steel (Rs 1,190 crore) in Orissa (Rs 1,190 crore) and Palatana Power (Rs 5,279 crore) in Tripura. Besides a Rs 1,259 crore project by Bhartiya City Developers will also come up for review.

The finance minister had started reviewing these projects after his meeting with some industry leaders (on August 1) who requested him for speeding up clearances.

"Besides, several other projects worth Rs 100-1,000 crore will be reviewed by the Finance Minister tomorrow," the official reportedly said.

The meeting is also likely to be attended by other ministers belonging to the concerned ministries.

In the last review meeting held in mid-November, the government had announced that three mega infrastructure projects envisaging an investment of Rs 25,000 crore have been accorded regulatory clearances.

Infrastructure bottlenecks are considered one of the major impediments in further accelerating economic growth in the country.