Effective mechanism?
While the delay saga continues, PRAGATI has helped fast-track of stuck projects, leading to cost and time savings. “Many projects stuck for years have achieved completion, such as the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressway around Delhi, Pakyong Airport in Sikkim, the Panipat Jalandhar six-lane project and Phase 1 of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway,” observes Vijay Agrawal, Executive Director, Equirus Capital.

“The platform has reviewed and taken steps to remove bottlenecks in multiple projects covering an investment of over Rs 12 trillion,” says Shubham Jain, Group Head & Senior Vice-President, Corporate Ratings, ICRA. “While it would be difficult to quantify the impact of PRAGATI on project execution, it is certainly a positive initiative that can help resolve bottlenecks in some large projects.”

The PRAGATI mechanism for monitoring is an ongoing process. “After its implementation and until March 2018, cost overruns remained under 15 per cent,” according to Siva Subramanian, Director, Infrastructure & Project Finance, India Ratings & Research (Fitch Group).Given that projects are added and dropped over the years, he believes cost overrun is not the only metric to be measured. “Project completion is an important aspect for the assessment of success.”

From the perspective of a construction contracting company, Yogesh Kumar Jain, Managing Director, PNC Infratech, says, “PRAGATI is an effective and expedient project-monitoring framework mechanism reviewed monthly at the highest levels of both the Centre and state governments. It is learnt that several big-ticket infrastructure projects that have been stuck for years could be accomplished through this platform during the past five years. A programme of this nature and enormity will certainly instil confidence in any infrastructure implementation company like us in successful delivery of big-ticket projects.”

TABLE
Current status of some of the 269 projects reviewed under PRAGATI

Source: Equirus Capital