346 of 909 projects running behind schedule: Vasan

New Delhi, Oct 23 (UNI) As many as 346 out of 909 large Government projects costing more than Rs 20 crore were running behind schedule as on March 2008 resulting in costs overrun of Rs 24689 crore, which was about 13.33 per cent of the latest aproved cost of Rs 185,089 crore, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Stating this, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation said in a written reply that the delays in implementation of projects was one of the reasons for its cost escalation.

The Government, he said, had taken effective steps to complete such projects at the earliest, including adoption of a two-stage clearance system and stricter appraisal of projects before investment approval; taking up projects only after funds had been fully tied up and in-depth review of projects on monthly and quarterly basis by the Government among others.

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