NEW DELHI: With India Inc still wary of fresh investments, the government is pulling out all stops to get stalled public investments off the ground and expedite big-ticket greenfield projects that have been on the drawing board for years such as the Navi Mumbai International Airport.In the weeks since it presented its first full-year Budget with a focus on reviving the economy through public investments, the Modi government has asked the Cabinet Secretariat to speed up implementation of over 135 public investment projects worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore by resolving red tape hurdles.This includes the Rs 8,000 crore Ratnagiri Gas and Power plant (aka Dabhol), over 100 highway projects, eight railway lines, two airports and several projects in the energy sector. Several of these projects are held up due to land acquisition issues.The project monitoring group in the cabinet secretariat, entrusted with unravelling such projects from a state of bureaucratic limbo, is now grappling with obstacles facing 332 public sector or public-private partnership projects worth Rs 10.2 lakh crore. By contrast, it has around 110 stalled private sector investments worthRs 10.4 lakh crore awaiting resolution of issues.This confirms the finance ministry’s assertion in the Economic Survey that contrary to popular belief, it is public sector projects that are thwarted the most due to regulatory clearances and land acquisition problems while private sector projects are stalled for reasons such as lack of promoter interest, changes in market conditions and other factors.“There is a clear signal to all ministries that all public sector investment projects in their domain that have been held up for some reason or the other be flagged with the cabinet secretariat, irrespective of their value,” said a senior government official aware of the development.This is a significant change in approach for the project monitoring group that has so far been focused on resolving problems facing investments of over Rs 1,000 crore or of a strategic nature. “When we need to turn the economy around, each investment is strategic,” the official explained, adding that around 90 of the 130-plus new projects handed over to the cabinet secretariat entail investments lower than Rs 1,000 crore.India Inc had earlier urged the UPA government to lower the investment threshold for approaching the project monitoring group to Rs 500 crore from Rs 1,000 crore as several smaller projects were also stuck. But the proposal wasn’t accepted at the time.The group in the cabinet secretariat has already resolved hurdles facing over 200 investments worth an estimated Rs 6.90 lakh crore, since it was set up in July 2013.“The government’s stalled projects are predominantly in infrastructure. Unfavourable market conditions (and not regulatory clearances) are stalling a large number of projects in the private sector, and in contrast regulatory reasons explain bulk of stalling in the public sector,” the Survey had said. Identifying manufacturing, electricity and mining as the sectors with the highest ‘stalling rates in recent quarters’, the Survey had estimated that clearing the top 100 projects by value will address 83% of the problem of stalled projects in the country.