"Speed up nod for shipping projects"

New Delhi: Pointing out that various clearances for shipping and port projects are taking “undue” long time, a Parliamentary Committee on Department of Shipping has called for “serious introspection” to cut short the time taken by approval agencies.

Even though the Department is supposed to spend the allocated funds within five years for many projects, it cannot utilise the funds till it gets approvals of various committees, a process which takes even two-three years at times.

In this backdrop, the Committee headed by Mr Sitaram Yechury has recommended that a stipulated time should be fixed for clearance from the Planning Commission and other approval bodies such as the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC), Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) and inter- and intra-departmental committees.

“The Committee notes with dismay that the preparation and clearance of Standing Finance Committee (SFC), Departmental Expenditure Finance Committee (Departmental EFC), Main Expenditure Finance Committee (Main EFC), Committee of Secretaries (CoS), Public Investment Board (PIB) or the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) proposals take undue long time and in some cases it takes precious long time of about 2-3 years,” it stated in the report.

It added: The Committee sees no justification in such a situation wherein many schemes of the department have an outlay for a period of five years mentioned on paper, but actually cannot be utilised till the approval of the SFC/EFC/CCEA/PPPAC remains pending.

Urging the department as well as the concerned appraisal agencies to “seriously introspect” over the delays which are “detrimental for the progressive functioning” of shipping and port sectors, the Committee stated: Steps should be taken well in time by the Department/Planning Commission/CCEA to avoid any such recurrences for the future and a limited stipulated time frame should be fixed for clearance from the Planning Commission and SFC/EFC/CCEA/PPPAC approval.

The Department of Shipping utilised Rs 2,517 crore during 2007-08 against the Budget estimates of Rs 4,271.27 crore. On this, the Committee said it does not approve the practice of the Department wherein it asks for higher allocations year after year, but the implementation of projects and schemes was poor as ground realities are not taken into account while formulating and implementing policies.