The Finance Ministry will review the status of stalled projects on Tuesday and evaluate the steps needed to ensure their early implementation.

Top level officials — General Managers and above — from several large public sector banks are expected to descend on the capital and meet senior Finance Ministry officials to find a way out.

Most of the stalled projects are in the infrastructure space, which is facing, among others, land acquisition and environmental clearance challenges.

A Government mechanism (project monitoring cell at the Prime Minister’s Office level) has already been put in place by the erstwhile UPA regime to look into the aspect of stalled projects.

“That process is now being continued in the new dispensation and the upcoming meeting will discuss issues on several sectors, including roads, power, etc.,” said a banker close to the developments. This meeting assumes importance as it comes close on the heels of the Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari expressing concern that banks were reluctant to fund road projects and public-private partnerships (PPPs) in this sector.

Tariff collections

Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha recently that the economic slowdown had cast a shadow on tariff collections in highways, making the sector unviable for PPP projects.

While the target of the NDA Government was to construct 30 km of roads a day, not a single kilometre was built in July, Gadkari had said.

“The problems of land and environmental clearances are being streamlined. However, banks are not willing to fund road projects.

“We held a meeting with bank chiefs recently. The PM will also call a meeting soon where a presentation will be made to bank chiefs so that lending can start soon,” the Minister had said.

Related Topics