Flash Report on Central Sector Infrastructure Projects worth ₹150 crore and above

1. At a Glance

• PAIMANA (Project Assessment Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics for Nation Building) is MoSPI's platform for appraising and monitoring Central Sector infrastructure projects costing ₹150 crore and above. The monthly Flash Report is its output. [1][2]
• As of August 2026, it tracks 1,731 ongoing projects with a revised cost of ₹33.60 lakh crore across 17 Central Ministries/Departments. [1]
• Cumulative expenditure is ₹16.33 lakh crore (~48.59%) of revised cost. [1]
• It matters for GS-III (infrastructure, project management) and GS-II (governance, transparency, accountability). [1]

2. Why in the News

• PIB published the August 2026 Flash Report on 25 Sep 2026, exactly one year after PAIMANA's launch. [1][2]
• August 2026 highlights:
• 37 new projects were brought under monitoring: 15 Petroleum & Natural Gas, 10 Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), 4 Power, 4 Higher Education, 2 Steel, 1 Coal and 1 Civil Aviation. [1]
• Commissioned projects included the 6L Greenfield Kandili–Aluru section of NH-130CD (₹1,912.84 cr) and the NH-07 Uttarakhand landslide-mitigation package (₹216.68 cr), both MoRTH. [1]
• The Haldia–Panagarh Pipeline (₹1,107 cr) of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas was also commissioned. [1]

3. Background & Evolution

• Predecessor: OCMS-2006 (Online Computerized Monitoring System). It was replaced by PAIMANA, launched on 25 Sep 2025. [2]
• Mandate: MoSPI monitors ongoing Central Sector infrastructure projects costing ₹150 crore and above. [2]
• Integration: PAIMANA links to DPIIT's Integrated Project Monitoring Portal (IPMP) via APIs. About 60% of projects are updated automatically, which reduces manual entry. [2]
• Earlier reports: the Flash Report is a monthly series. Issues for Dec 2025, Jan 2026, Mar 2026 and Apr 2026 appeared in the search results but were not opened. [2]

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Nodal ministry	MoSPI [1]
Threshold	Projects of ₹150 cr and above [2]
Mega projects	₹1,000 cr and above: 715 projects, original cost ₹25.89 lakh cr [1]
Major projects	₹150 cr to below ₹1,000 cr: 1,016 projects, ₹4.83 lakh cr [1]
Sector classification	DEA's Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure [1]
Ministries covered	17 [1]

Ministry-wise (Aug 2026) [1]

Ministry	Projects	Revised cost
MoRTH	982 (57%)	₹9.52 lakh cr (28%)
Railways	147 (8%)	₹3.14 lakh cr (9%)
Coal	122 (7%)	₹2.22 lakh cr (7%)
Petroleum & Natural Gas	117	₹4.42 lakh cr
Power	102	₹6.18 lakh cr
Housing & Urban Affairs	49	₹3.41 lakh cr
Water Resources, River Development & GR	38	₹2.00 lakh cr
Others	174 (10%)	₹2.71 lakh cr (8%)

Sector-wise (Aug 2026) [1]

Sector	Projects	Share of revised cost
Transport & Logistics	1,191 (69%)	48% (₹16.05 lakh cr)
Energy	223	32% (₹10.95 lakh cr)
Water & Sanitation	53	6% (₹2.04 lakh cr)
Communication	31	4% (₹1.34 lakh cr)
Social & Commercial	81	3% (₹0.97 lakh cr)
Others (coal, steel, metals, mining)	152	7% (₹2.26 lakh cr)

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Economic

• Transport & Logistics takes 48% of cost, which shows the priority on connectivity and logistics efficiency. [1]
• Energy takes 32% of cost. [1]
• Financial progress is 48.59%. Physical progress exceeds financial progress in the 81–100% band, while financial progress is higher in early stages because of upfront expenditure. [1]

Administrative

• 647 projects (~38%) have over 80% physical progress. Only 312 (~18%) have crossed 80% financial completion. [1]
• Projects cluster at 0–20% and 81–100% progress, which indicates a pipeline of new starts alongside many near completion. [1]
• MoRTH holds 57% of projects but 28% of cost. Concentration in one ministry raises implementation risk. [1]

Ethical / Governance

• Automated API data flow from IPMP (~60% of projects) improves data integrity and timeliness. [2]
• Central monitoring supports data-driven review across ministries. [1]

Technological

• The platform replaces OCMS-2006 with an integrated appraisal, monitoring and analytics system. [2]

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• 25 Sep 2025: PAIMANA launched, replacing OCMS-2006. [2]
• June 2026: 1,847 projects, revised cost ₹40.54 lakh cr, expenditure ₹21.97 lakh cr. [2] These figures come from a search-result summary, not a page I opened.
• Aug 2026:
• 1,731 projects, ₹33.60 lakh cr revised cost. [1]
• 37 projects added. [1]

• NH-130CD and Haldia–Panagarh pipeline commissioned. [1]

• The June-to-August fall in project count and cost is unexplained in my sources. Likely causes are completions and cost revisions, but I did not verify this.

7. Prelims Hooks

• PAIMANA is run by MoSPI, not NITI Aayog or DPIIT. [1]
• The monitoring threshold is ₹150 crore and above. [2]
• Mega project means ₹1,000 crore and above. [1]
• PAIMANA replaced OCMS-2006 and was launched on 25 Sep 2025. [2]
• It has data integration with DPIIT's IPMP. [2]
• 1,731 projects, ₹33.60 lakh crore revised cost, as of Aug 2026. [1]
• 17 Central Ministries/Departments are covered. [1]
• MoRTH has the most projects (982). [1]
• Power has the highest revised cost among the listed ministries after MoRTH (₹6.18 lakh cr), ahead of Petroleum & Natural Gas (₹4.42 lakh cr). [1]
• The sector classification follows DEA's Harmonized Master List. [1]
• Transport & Logistics: 1,191 projects, ₹16.05 lakh cr. [1]
• 37 new projects were added in Aug 2026, 15 of them from Petroleum & Natural Gas. [1]
• The Haldia–Panagarh Pipeline (₹1,107 cr) was commissioned in Aug 2026. [1]

8. The Number the Flash Report Is Really Meant to Carry: Delay

• The whole point of this monthly series is to catch late and costly projects — and the note above has none of that.
• The Flash Report series has always reported two things the August 2026 summary skips: how many projects are running late, and by how much.
• In the May 2024 Flash Report, the average delay in delayed projects was about 35 months [3]. That is close to three years, for projects each worth ₹150 crore or more.

• So "48.59% money spent" [1] tells you nothing about whether that money is buying the road on time.

• Delay is not a small side problem. It is the main story in Indian infrastructure.

• The Standing Committee on Energy (2021) found that 30 of 34 thermal power projects it studied were delayed, adding up to 148 years of delay and ₹41,100 crore of extra cost [4].

• For hydro power, 12 of 13 projects were delayed — over 100 years of delay and ₹31,530 crore of extra cost [4].

• In an answer, always ask for the delay number next to the spending number. A high spending figure with a long delay means cost is rising, not that work is finishing.

9. Why the Month-to-Month Figures Do Not Line Up

• The list of projects changes every month, so the totals are not the same thing each time.
• January 2026: 1,702 projects, cumulative expenditure ₹20.01 lakh crore [6].
• August 2026: 1,731 projects, cumulative expenditure ₹16.33 lakh crore [1].

• Money already spent cannot go down. It looks smaller only because finished projects leave the list and new ones join it. You are looking at a different set of projects, not a shrinking one.

• Original cost and revised cost are two different measures — and the report mixes them.

• January 2026 is quoted at original cost (₹33.71 lakh crore) [6]; August 2026 at revised cost (₹33.60 lakh crore) [1].
• Original cost is what was approved. Revised cost is what it now costs. The gap between them is the cost overrun.

• If you compare an original-cost total with a revised-cost total, you hide exactly the thing you wanted to measure.

• Exam use: never write "projects fell from 1,847 to 1,731" as if the pipeline shrank. Say which month, and which cost basis.

10. A Dashboard Cannot Remove the Reasons Projects Get Stuck

• The delays come from outside the ministry running the project. PIB lists the main causes as delay in land acquisition, delay in environment and forest clearances, funding constraints, rehabilitation and resettlement issues, local body permissions, utility shifting (moving water pipes, electricity poles) and contract disputes [5].

• A monitoring portal records that a project is stuck. It cannot give the project its land, its forest clearance or its court order.

• India has been monitoring these projects since 2006 and the delays stayed. OCMS-2006 ran for almost twenty years [2], and the overrun figures above are from that period [3][4]. A new portal changes the tool, not the ground problem.

• The data mostly comes from the ministry being judged. About 60% of projects update automatically through DPIIT's IPMP [2] — and PIB notes this auto-update covers mainly MoRTH, Petroleum & Natural Gas and Coal [5]. The rest is entered by hand by the executing agency, which also decides when a project is called "revised" instead of "delayed".
• Be fair to the other side. The Standing Committee on Energy itself asked for an IT-based monitoring system linking suppliers, developers and contractors [4]. So PAIMANA is doing something a parliamentary committee recommended. The honest position is that monitoring is necessary but not enough — it is step one, not the cure.

11. Fixes That Real Committees Have Actually Asked For

• Single window clearance, as the Standing Committee on Energy recommended (2021) — one office that collects land, forest, environment and resettlement approvals together, instead of a project chasing each department one by one [4]. This attacks the top cause on PIB's own list of delay reasons [5].
• MoSPI should publish delay and cost overrun alongside the monthly totals. The older Flash Reports already carried the average time overrun [3]. Bringing that back into the PAIMANA release makes the report a performance check, not just a count of projects.
• PRAGATI review should be pointed at the worst cases. The Prime Minister already reviews stuck projects through PRAGATI video conferences with Centre and State officials [5]. A monitoring platform is useful mainly when it feeds that meeting a ranked list of the most delayed projects.
• Ministries should treat land and clearance as a condition before award, not a problem during work. Contracts awarded before land is in hand turn into contract disputes — one of the listed causes of overrun [5].

12. Anchors for Answers

• Data: Average delay of about 35 months in delayed Central Sector projects, May 2024 Flash Report [3]
• Data: 1,731 ongoing projects, ₹33.60 lakh crore revised cost, 48.59% of cost spent, August 2026 [1]
• Report/Committee: Standing Committee on Energy, 5 August 2021 — 148 years of cumulative delay and ₹41,100 crore cost overrun in 30 thermal projects; over 100 years and ₹31,530 crore in 12 hydro projects [4]
• Comparison: Standing Committee's single window clearance model — all approvals in one place, instead of project-by-project chasing of land, forest and environment departments [4]
• Scheme: PRAGATI — the Prime Minister's video-conference review of stuck projects with Centre and States, the enforcement arm that a monitoring platform like PAIMANA feeds [5]
• Scheme: DPIIT's IPMP — supplies about 60% of PAIMANA's data by API, mainly MoRTH, Petroleum & Natural Gas and Coal projects [2][5]

13. Mains Relevance

• GS-III: Infrastructure (roads, railways, energy, ports); investment models.
• GS-II: Government policies and interventions; transparency and accountability; e-governance.
• Possible questions:
• Cost and time overruns continue to plague Central Sector projects. Evaluate the role of real-time digital monitoring platforms like PAIMANA.
• Analyse the sectoral composition of India's ongoing infrastructure pipeline and its implications for balanced regional and social development.
• How can inter-ministerial data integration improve project delivery? Discuss with reference to PAIMANA and IPMP.

14. Related Topics to Study Next

• PM Gati Shakti: integrated infrastructure planning and coordination.
• National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP): the target framework that the Harmonized Master List supports.
• DPIIT's IPMP/PMG: the source of PAIMANA's automated data.
• MoSPI's mandate: statistics, MPLADS, and project monitoring.
• Cost and time overruns: definitions and causes.
• Bharatmala and Railways capacity projects: the main components of the transport share.
• Public capex in the Union Budget: the financing side.

15. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Ministry: PAIMANA belongs to MoSPI, not DPIIT or NITI Aayog. DPIIT runs the separate IPMP.
• Thresholds: the source calls Major projects "below ₹1,000 cr and up to ₹150 cr", which is loosely worded. The scope is ₹150 cr and above.
• Cost basis: Mega projects are quoted at original cost (₹25.89 lakh cr) but the total at revised cost (₹33.60 lakh cr). Do not add the two categories and expect the total. 25.89 + 4.83 = 30.72.
• Share confusion: MoRTH has the most projects (57%) but not the largest share of cost among sectors. Transport & Logistics is a sector, not a ministry.
• Predecessor and date: OCMS-2006 is the predecessor, not a parallel system. The launch date is 25 Sep 2025, not 2026.
• Time series: the June 2026 figures (1,847 projects) differ from August 2026 (1,731). Quote the month.