PMG targets road projects of Rs. 20 lakh-cr

In order to inject yet another booster to the road infra, the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) that works under the supreme stewardship of Prime Minister's Office, has targeted about 500 projects in the road sector entailing a staggering investment of Rs. 20 lakh-cr. The Group has already cleared 276 projects that were lying stalled due to various reasons and accounting investment of nearly Rs. 10 lakh-cr, in the last two years. Another 258 projects, with investment of more than Rs. 10 lakh-cr, will be cleared very shortly. Most of these projects are in the roads, coal, power, and railways segment lying in limbo due to land and environment issues. Nearly half the projects are public sector and the rest, private plus PPP (Public-Private Partnership). PMG works on a web platform - a portal designed for investors facing clearance issues acts as a central data platform. Each project is assigned a unique ID and the hurdles a project faces are flagged. A PMO official said, once clearance hurdles for a certain number of projects have been identified, PMG calls for a meeting with chief secretaries of states and concerned investors to clear these projects.