Centre bats for single agency to plan, monitor & evaluate infra projects

In view of the government’s increased thrust on infrastructure development and huge hike in investment, the Centre has decided to set up a single agency for infrastructure planning, monitoring, and evaluation. This has been aimed at ensuring infrastructure projects have maximum impact on the economy, job generation, ease of living, and quality of life. The trend of higher allocation for capital expenditure is likely to continue and there has been a significant increase in the utilisation of the allocated fund as well. As the resources are limited, it’s important to have integrated planning and monitoring of all projects by one agency. But the evaluation of projects is more important to find about the results and impact of the huge public expenditure. On this score, the Finance Ministry has suggested that the railways, road transport, and shipping ministries conduct productivity tests of all their projects after completion. Similar exercises should also be carried for Metro Rail projects. The Finance Ministry also asked Niti Aayog to continuously monitor data generated by such tests and recommend measures in consultation with the ministries concerned.