Fourteen States are waiting for the elections to end to set up monitoring groups to facilitate clearance of projects with investments under ₹1,000 crore.

“These State-based project monitoring groups will be ready to start work as soon as the on-going Lok Sabha election is over,” a Government official told Business Line .

The States include Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam. The monitoring bodies to be set up by the States will be similar to the one at the Centre.

The Prime Minister’s Project Monitoring Group at the Centre, which has assisted in clearing several big-ticket projects in less than a year, has developed software for each State, the Government official said. The first round of training of officials is also over.

“Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are also interested and are expected to give a formal request soon,” the official added.

Web information

The Centre’s Project Monitoring Group, set up in June 2013 under the Cabinet Secretariat, has helped clear projects worth over ₹5 lakh crore. This was achieved by bringing to the table all Departments, Ministries and agencies connected with a project that has not got off the ground.

The PMG has put in place a web-based information system for use by both Government and private investors to provide details of pending projects and point out where each is stuck.

The information on such projects is first accessed by the Ministry or Department concerned, which verifies it and then forwards it to the PMG for action. The PMG then brings together all Ministries involved to sort out the problem.

Odisha accounts for as many as 72 of the 439 projects registered with the PMG for resolution. Maharashtra accounts for 47, Chhattisgarh 46 and Karnataka 39.

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