Mumbai, Feb (EPC News): The infrastructure sector has preformed unevenly as per economic survey 2010-11. While the telecommunication sector has performed beyond expectations, the other sectors power, roads, National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) and railways have not been able to match up their targets during 2007-08 to 2009-10.

As per the survey the infrastructure investment is expected to reach to 8.73% of GDP from the 7.18% of GDP level in 2008 - 09. The sub sectors which achieved more the physical targets or even exceeded the targets were telecommunications, villages electrified under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGYY), railway lines electrification, railway gauge conversion and new and renewal of road constructions under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana.

As on October 2010, Only 14  projects were ahead of schedule from the 559 monitored Central sector projects costing Rs150 crore and above. The remaining 117 projects are delivering on schedule with 293 projects have delayed performance and rest have not yet been commissioned. These projects include roads, power, railways, petroleum, telecom, coal and steel.

The delay has been varied in terms of months across sector. In the road transport and highways sector, 51 projects have reported delay in the range of 1 to 36 months; in the power sector 20 projects have reported delays in the range of 1 to 18 months and in the petroleum sector 16 projects have reported delays in the range of 1 to 16 months says the Survey.

As per the survey, the central sector project costing Rs150 crore and above has been successful in achieving steady reduction of time and cost over runs, and the above achievement is attributed to the close monitoring and system improvements  by the concerned ministries.

During the period between April 2010 and November 2010, sectors again had paradoxical performance. The switching capacity addition and cell phone connections in the telecommunications sector have increased by 39.7% and 27% respectively.

Crude oil production has increased by 11.5% and natural gas production by 19.8%.

The civil aviation sector has performed better than the last year in both cargo and passengers handled. The power and cement sectors have failed to impress with their below par performance.

Coal-sector grew at a very mild rate of 0.6 % as against 8% growth in previous year. The coal sector's performance has trickling down effect on thermal power generation this year.

Fertilizer production has also not seen any rise as against the previous year's 13.2% growth.

EPC News Bureau

Posted by: epcworld | Posted on:2/25/2011 at 1:11 PM