Amid states, over 68 per cent manufacturing projects in Rajasthan have remained under implementation followed by Haryana (67.5 per cent), Bihar (63 per cent), Assam and Uttar Pradesh (62 per cent).

"Considering that long delays in projects' implementation hurts investors' sentiment, the government needs to have a strong plan to prioritise speeding up stuck projects' effective implementation by creating a target-oriented roadmap," said D.S. Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the findings of the chamber's study.

"Even investors should be penalised if projects get delayed due to improper planning, change of ownership, lack of finance, absence of co-ordination with contractors and other related issues," said Mr Rawat.

Highlighting the impact of delay in implementation of projects in manufacturing sector across India, the ASSOCHAM study noted that out of 1,160 projects that are in different stages of implementation, 422 projects have reported time or cost overruns worth about Rs nine lakh crore i.e. almost 50 per cent of the actual investment.

Of these 422 delayed projects, only 80 projects have declared employment potential and these projects alone could generate 4.5 lakh employment opportunities.

Manufacturing projects in the steel sector are facing maximum cost escalation with a share of over 50 per cent followed by refinery (28 per cent).

Ownership-wise, projects in manufacturing sector that are owned by private players account for over 62 per cent share followed by that of public sector (38 per cent share).

Delayed projects facing cost escalation have maximum share of 31 per cent in Odisha followed by Karnataka, Rajasthan and Jharkhand (nine per cent share of each).

Manufacturing projects that are under implementation in Telangana are facing maximum cost escalation of over 73 per cent of the actual cost followed by Odisha (71 per cent), Jharkhand and Rajasthan (66 per cent).
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