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DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand has witnessed delayed progress in implementation of industrial projects despite attracting investment worth Rs 2 lakh crores from national and international firms as on 2017, according to a report by industrial body Assocham .

In financial year 2016, the project implementation rate of the state stood at 38% while it rose to 58% in 2017.

Citing the need to set up a special investment monitoring task force, the general secretary of Assocham, D S Rawat, said, “Speeding up implementation of projects trough target setting must be the mandate. The chief minister should constitute a committee of senior ministers and bureaucrats to oversee pace of projects’ implementation and address environment, land acquisition and other related issues to balance interests of all stakeholders.”

Industry experts said that the state should accord more importance to project implementation since even if half of these get implemented it would help create thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the state during the course of next five years.

According to sources, non-financial services account for over half of the total live investments attracted by Uttarakhand as on financial year 2017 with electricity sector acquiring over 46% share. At present, 151 projects worth over Rs 1 crore are under various stages of implementation in Uttarakhand.