36 bottlenecks faced by 17 infra projects reviewed by Goyal-led panel

The Project Monitoring Group, headed by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, reviewed as many as 36 bottlenecks faced by 17 infrastructure projects with total anticipated investment of Rs 32,910 crore, an official release said on Friday.

The commerce and industry ministry said the group has till date resolved more than 3,500 issues in 809 projects and has unlocked anticipated financial investment of more than Rs 32 lakh crore.

At the moment, it said, the group is handling 588 issues in 260 projects, with total anticipated investment of Rs 10 lakh crore.

The projects which were reviewed on February 27 include BPCL's petroleum and petrochemical projects in Rasayani, Maharashtra.

It said with an anticipated investment of Rs 7,000 crore, "this project is critical for BPCL's plan to grow its petrochemical business from its current 1 per cent of portfolio to 15 per cent".

This project will reduce import dependency of petrochemicals and boost growth of associated ancillary setups and industries, it said.

The other projects include four-laning of Govindpur (Rajganj)- Chas - West Bengal Border Section [NH-32]; implementation of transmission systems in Jharkhand; and Londa Miraj doubling project.

The Rs 1,800 crore Jharkahnd project is necessary to feed power in deficit load centres for economic and social growth in the state.

"Actionable directions and timelines were issued for the expeditious resolution of pending issues in all projects," it added.

In the meeting, Goyal emphasised the importance of setting up additional transmission lines for power projects in the expanding city of Bangalore where power deficits had arisen earlier due to lack of infrastructure, given high land prices for erecting new infrastructure.

Further the minister called for more ministries and states to upload their projects across sectors including defence to be taken up by the PMG.

Goyal, who also holds railways portfolio, directed railways to prioritise investments in projects where the state provides for 100 per cent land acquisition.

"He also directed all the states...to consider the use of technology in tree transplantation to avoid tree cutting," it added.

The commerce minister asked additional director general of forests and Ministry of Environment and Forests to provide a concept paper on best technologies available for tree transplantation.

The PMG meeting was attended by Som Prakash, Minister of State for commerce and industry, senior officers of DPIIT, Chief Secretaries of Karnataka and Maharashtra, and senior officers of Jharkhand, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh through video conference.

The PMG is an institutional mechanism of DPIIT (department for promotion of industry and internal trade) to expedite resolution of issues and removal of regulatory bottlenecks in projects, with investments upward of Rs 500 crore.

It enlists unresolved project issues of all Public, Private and PPP and undertakes fast-tracking of approvals, sectoral policy issues and removal of bottlenecks for expeditious commissioning.