The government today said as many as 109 private sector projects, with proposed investments of Rs 1,000 crore or more each, are awaiting clearance from different ministries.

The government had in May 2012 set up an Investment Tracking System for projects with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore and above.

"As on October 1, 2012, banks had reported 185 projects in the private sector, including 109 projects with pending clearances at different Ministries/Departments of Central Government, State Governments and Bank's level," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The government has also constituted a Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) to monitor the identified key projects in different sectors for their time-bound implementation.

The CCI, under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was constituted on January 1, 2013.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam informed the House while replying to a separate query that government has launched a drive against fake Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards.

As a continuous process, he said, in order to know the genuineness of KYC documents on proof of identity and address, third party field verification is conducted after allotment of PAN.

He further said check on duplicate allotment of PANs to existing PAN allottees is an inbuilt feature in the related software.

Palanimanickam said a total of 509 PAN cards have been marked "Fake".