Project planning

The road infra projects are but part of the command economy syndrome of the sixties.Old drawbacks persist ; either the tendering process is incomplete, or the terms and conditions are unclear, or lengthy litigations and local political interference, or simply a lack of policy and management co-ordination, stalling projects midway and left hanging till things are sorted out. One reason why private funds have largely shied away from infrastructure projects in general. As the outlays are huge ,public money is rendered unproductive and lending banks stare at enormous NPAs.The government thus battles on many fronts : growth retarded by stalled infra,unproductive assets that give no returns ,PSU banks with poor balance sheets and worse, reduced liquidity to service the economy.By granting one time financial assistance to stalled projects ,the government is addressing only a part of the problem that of freeing idling assets .But what about a thorough overhaul of its own outdated relic of professional project management .Seminars will not do. llll. R.Narayanan ,Ghaziabad . lllllll