State Governments to Revive Stalled Infra Projects
Taking a cue from the Centre’s move to revive several stalled infrastructure projects, many state governments are also following suit. The prime objective of this move is to spur economic activity and thus create new jobs. This comes at the backdrop of the fall in investments by private players.
Bihar and Rajasthan are two states that have already set the ball rolling in this regard. These two states have already constituted inter-ministerial bodies so as to remove any bottlenecks that these stalled projects are facing. Agencies like the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) and the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) which were constituted by the Central government have been effective in clearing many stalled projects. As many as 125 projects with investments of more than Rs.4 lakh crore have been cleared by these agencies. This is likely to spur more states to join the bandwagon for clearing stalled infrastructure projects.
PMG and CCI coordinate with state governments
To lend a helping hand to the state governments, the PMG and CCI are coordinating with the state governments to remove any bottlenecks that may hamper the clearance of stalled projects. These include the removal of obstacles related to land allocation or environment clearances from state government agencies. One of the major hurdles faced by such projects is with regard to obtaining green clearances. This requires coordination with state governments which has been taken up by these agencies.
Bihar and Rajasthan constitute agencies
The Rajasthan government has already constituted a panel which will be headed by the chief secretary. Even though the main objective of the panel would be to obtain clearances for Central sector projects, they are also likely to take up private sector projects. Meanwhile, the Bihar government has already constituted a committee headed by the state development commissioner that would engage in clearing projects involving investments of over Rs.150 crore.
CII requests PM to widen scope of project clearance
Incidentally, this move comes at a time when industry chambers like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have requested the Prime Minister to widen the scope of projects that are pending clearances. In the present scenario, the PMG and CCI are taking up the clearance of projects that involve investments of Rs.1,000 crore or more. Considering the effectiveness of this mechanism, it is expected that the remaining projects coming under the scope of it would also be addressed effectively. In a bid to widen the scope of this mechanism, the CII is keen that it be extended to projects with investments of Rs.500 crore and more. At present, the PMG is engaged in the clearance of 406 projects.
