NEW DELHI: It may be hard to believe but a railway project sanctioned in 1974-75 is still incomplete and it was kept alive with an allocation of a meagre Rs 1000 every year for around ten years.

The federal auditor has found that the project for construction of new line from Howrah to Amta with a branch line from Bargachia to Champadanga under South Eastern Railways was sanctioned in 1974-75.

According to an MOU signed in 1973, the land was to be provided free of cost by the West Bengal government. While the first 24-km stretch of Howrah to Bargachia was completed in 1984, the construction work beyond Bargachia was frozen for more than a decade.

However, the project was shown as ongoing in the Pink Book with a token allocation of Rs 1000 each year up to 1995-96 (except Rs one crore in 1993-94), according to a CAG report.

The project restarted in 1995 after allocation of funds. Though the section from Bargachhia to Amta was commissioned in two phases in 2000 and 2004, the progress of works for the branch line from Bargachhia to Champadanga suffered due to non-acquisition of land.

In September 2014, it was proposed to shelve the project (Bargachhia-Champadanga section). However, it was considered as ongoing with anticipated throw-forward of Rs 356.03 crore.

The CAG report said such delays in the execution of more than 400 projects by the railways resulted in cost overruns of Rs 1.07 lakh crore and highlighted land acquisition as one of the main factors responsible for delays.

It was found that 75 projects have been going on for more than 15 years and of them, three projects are 30 years’ old.

Interestingly, the auditor found that target dates for completion of projects were either not fixed or not available on records of the rail administration.

It noted that projects were delayed due to delay in preparation or sanction of estimates and delay in acquisition of land.

Surprisingly, the CAG found that 82 projects, which were shown as ‘completed projects’ still required Rs 10,832 crore for completion of pending work.

The CAG report, tabled in Parliament on Friday, noted a huge throw-forward of Rs 1.86 lakh crore in respect of 442 ongoing projects.

The report noted lack of consistency in prioritisation of projects and also allocation of funds was not proportionate to the requirement while there were several instances of under-utilisation of funds which had adverse impact on the physical progress of projects.

Noting that during 2009-14, 202 projects were added to the existing shelf of ongoing projects ignoring existing fund constraints. As a result, only 67 projects were completed during this period.

Despite budgetary support from the finance ministry, progress of national projects was far from satisfactory resulting in substantial time and cost overruns.

It has found that the rate of return was less than the prescribed benchmark of 14% in 236 (53%) ongoing projects.