How can inter-ministerial data integration improve project delivery? Discuss with reference to PAIMANA and IPMP.

Delays in Central Sector projects are rarely the fault of one ministry — land, forest clearance, funding and utility shifting sit with different departments. PAIMANA (Project Assessment, Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics for Nation-Building), MoSPI's platform that replaced OCMS-2006 in September 2025 and draws data from DPIIT's Integrated Project Monitoring Portal (IPMP), shows that shared data can sharpen delivery, though it cannot by itself remove the causes of delay [1].

How inter-ministerial data integration helps

• Single source of truth: PAIMANA appraises and monitors all Central Sector projects costing ₹150 crore and above [2] — about 1,731 ongoing projects worth ₹33.60 lakh crore across 17 Ministries, with roughly 48.6% of cost spent [3].
• Timeliness and data integrity: APIs pull data automatically from IPMP, so nearly 60% of projects — mainly MoRTH, Petroleum & Natural Gas and Coal — update without manual entry, reducing lag and transcription error [1].
• Exception-based review: a common dataset lets the Centre rank the worst-stuck projects and place them before PRAGATI review, instead of ministry-wise self-reporting.
• Comparability: uniform sectoral classification exposes concentration risk — MoRTH alone holds about 57% of projects [3] — guiding where capacity must be built.
• Committee sanction: the Standing Committee on Energy (2021) itself sought an IT-based project monitoring and follow-up system at all project sites [4].

Why data alone is insufficient

• Monitoring existed from 2006, yet the average delay in delayed projects was about 35 months in the May 2024 Flash Report [5].
• Delays arise outside the dashboard — land acquisition, environment and forest clearances, contract disputes — for which the Committee recommended single window clearance [4].
• Reporting still originates with the executing agency, and mixing original with revised cost can mask overrun [3].

Integration therefore converts scattered ministerial reporting into one auditable picture, which is the first condition for timely delivery. Publishing time and cost overruns alongside expenditure, feeding PRAGATI a ranked list of stalled works, and pairing PAIMANA–IPMP with single window clearance would turn transparency into accountability — advancing SDG-9 on resilient infrastructure.