PIB TrackerRs 2.88 lakh crore separates the original costs from the revised total
PAIMANA tracks 1,731 Central infrastructure projects at a revised Rs 33.60 lakh crore. The original costs it also prints add to Rs 30.72 lakh crore.
What happened
- MoSPI released its flash report on Central Sector infrastructure projects of Rs 150 crore and above, via the PAIMANA platform.
- As of August 2026: 1,731 ongoing projects, revised cost Rs 33.60 lakh crore, across 17 Ministries/Departments.
- Cumulative expenditure Rs 16.33 lakh crore - about 48.59% of revised cost.
- 647 projects past 80% physical progress; 312 past 80% financial completion.
- Composition: 715 Mega projects (Rs 1,000 crore and above) and 1,016 Major projects (Rs 150 crore to Rs 1,000 crore).
For Prelims
- PAIMANA: MoSPI's platform for monitoring Central Sector infrastructure projects. The reporting threshold is Rs 150 crore and above.
- The two size classes: Mega = Rs 1,000 crore and above (715 projects); Major = Rs 150 crore to under Rs 1,000 crore (1,016 projects).
- Original versus revised cost: the difference is the cost overrun. Original Rs 25.89 + 4.83 = 30.72 lakh crore; revised 33.60 lakh crore.
- Physical versus financial progress: physical is work completed, financial is money spent. Here physical runs ahead at the top end - 38% past 80% against 18%.
- Sectoral classification follows the DEA's Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure, under which Transport & Logistics takes 48%.
- Ministry concentration: MoRTH holds 982 projects (57%) but Rs 9.52 lakh crore (28%) - many small projects.
- The opposite pattern: Power has 102 projects worth Rs 6.18 lakh crore - about Rs 6,059 crore each, six times MoRTH's average.
- Why 17 Ministries: the remaining 174 projects (10%, Rs 2.71 lakh crore) sit across Higher Education, Civil Aviation, Steel, Telecom, Ports, Health, Mines, DPIIT and Sports.
For UPSC: Project cost and time overruns are a standing question on infrastructure and public expenditure, and this is the current official dataset. Use it on infrastructure financing and project monitoring, on the road-versus-power capital intensity contrast, and on public expenditure management, where the distinction between physical and financial progress is the technical point most answers miss.
What it is NOT: The release does not report cost overrun as a category at all - the Rs 2.88 lakh crore gap between the original costs it prints and the revised total is left for the reader to compute, and no project-wise or ministry-wise overrun breakdown is given. It reports no TIME overruns either: no count of delayed projects, no average delay, and no original versus anticipated completion dates, which is the other half of what such monitoring exists to surface. The phrase "original cost" is used for the Mega tranche and "amounting to" for the Major one, so whether the Rs 4.83 lakh crore is original or revised is not stated. No reasons for revision are offered anywhere, and no comparison with previous months is given.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.9 · GS3.1 · Linkage L2
Anchor
MoSPI is monitoring 1,731 Central infrastructure projects at a revised cost of Rs 33.60 lakh crore. The same release prints the original costs of its two size classes - Rs 25.89 lakh crore and Rs 4.83 lakh crore - which sum to Rs 30.72 lakh crore. The Rs 2.88 lakh crore in between is a cost overrun the document never calls one.
Substantiation (data)
The progress figures are more interesting than the headline. Expenditure stands at 48.59 per cent of revised cost, yet 38 per cent of projects have crossed 80 per cent physical progress while only 18 per cent have crossed 80 per cent financially. Work is running ahead of payment at the completion end, which is the reverse of the usual pattern and suggests billing rather than building is the constraint.
Position
The ministry split is the most usable fact here. Road Transport and Highways holds 57 per cent of the projects and 28 per cent of the money - about Rs 969 crore a project - while Power holds 102 projects averaging Rs 6,059 crore each. Roads are numerous, distributed and politically legible; power is concentrated, capital-heavy and slow. The same portfolio contains two entirely different kinds of infrastructure risk.
Counterpoint
A 9.4 per cent gap between original and revised cost is not, by the standards of large public infrastructure, alarming. Revisions absorb land acquisition, statutory clearance changes, design modification and price escalation over multi-year builds, and a portfolio where 38 per cent of projects are past four-fifths complete is a portfolio that is delivering.
Problematisation
What is missing is time. No count of delayed projects, no average delay, no original against anticipated completion dates - and time overrun is what converts a cost revision into a compounding loss. A monitoring platform that reports money and physical percentages but not schedule is reporting two of the three dimensions that matter.
Conclusion
Read the composition, not the total. Rs 33.60 lakh crore across 1,731 projects says little on its own; that 48 per cent of it is transport, that roads are small and power is large, and that the original figures do not add up to the revised one, is what the report actually tells you.
Deploys into: Infrastructure financing and project monitoring · Cost and time overruns in public projects · Public expenditure management · Sectoral composition of capital spending
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation · 2026-09-25 · PRID 2314852 · PIB source ↗