Chennai and Kolkata airport expansion projects will be delayed further. A Government flash report has admitted that these are among 40 projects hit by additional delays.
The report for the month of July says, “The additional delays are in the range of 1 to 21 months, in respect of projects relating to coal, steel, petroleum, power, railways, road transport and highways, shipping and ports, civil aviation and atomic energy sectors.”
The report was prepared by Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The report covers a total of 558 projects in the central sector costing Rs 150 crore and above.
Specifically on airport projects, the report said that the development of both the Kamaraj Domestic Terminal Phase-II and expansion of Anna International Airport are delayed by a further two months, according to the Airports Authority of India. The delay is due to a delay in the commissioning of technological works.
This project was initially planned to be completed by January, 2011. In June, it was revised to October, which has again been rescheduled. The overall delay is now 11 months.
On the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, the Authority has reported an additional delay of three months due to lack of skilled workers. The overall delay is now 10 months, the report added.
The report mentioned that out of 558 projects being reviewed, 241 were delayed as of end of July this year. This delay has caused cost overruns of 20 per cent.