JOIN US Stressing the need for Karnataka to set up a state-level Project Monitoring Group (PMG), Anil Swarup, Additional Secretary & Chairman, Project Monitoring Group, on Friday said more than 50 per cent of problems faced by stalled projects are related to state-level clearances.
Speaking at an interactive session organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Swarup said that transparency in the process of according project clearances will be key to Karnataka becoming a leading manufacturing hub.
Seven states have already started the process of setting up state-level PMGs.
Set up by the government of India, PMG is an institutional mechanism to track stalled investment projects with the aim of removing implementation bottlenecks in these projects. It has cleared 133 projects worth over Rs. 4.25 lakh crore so far, Swarup said.
PMG has so far compiled a list of 407 stalled projects for want of various types of clearances, entailing investments of over Rs 19 lakh crore which is about 25 per cent of India’s GDP, he said.
CII Karnataka Chairman Soumitra Bhattacharya said that streamlining and bringing in accountability and transparency into the monitoring process are key focus areas for the government and industry when it comes to obtaining project clearances. He urged the government to speed up clearances for numerous stalled infrastructure projects in the country.
Bhattacharya assured the PMG full support in reviving various stalled projects and promised to take up the issue of setting up State Level Project Monitoring Group with the Karnataka government.