Railway projects running 20 years late

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India pulled up the Railways for its lethargic approach in terms of executing new projects. CAG observed that some of the projects that were sanctioned around two decades ago, still pending executions.
The CAG has evaluated the progress of 50 new line projects in the backward regions which were sanctioned more than ten years and found that five new line projects sanctioned more than 20 years ago, nine sanctioned between 15 and 20 years ago and 36 between 10 and 15 years ago were lying incomplete as on March 2010. The CAG has also points out that 18 of these projects cannot be completed within next ten years
Railways have already spent Rs.8,549 crore for those 50 incomplete projects and need Rs.16,800 crore more to complete. However, the CAG has asked the Railways to abandon such projects where the work is affected because of resources crunch.
Significantly, the CAG has expressed concerns over delays in execution of the ambitious dedicated freight corridor (DFC) that experienced a tremendous escalation in its project cost. Initially, in January 2007, the project cost for DFC was estimated at Rs.28,000 crore which has almost doubled and is estimated at Rs.48,000 crore at present costs.

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