Big-ticket projects will be fast-tracked: Chidambaram

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday expressed concern over the delay in clearing big projects and said steps will be taken to fast track all of them.

"We ... will fast track all of them. Some of them will get automatically fast-tracked," he told journalists in New Delhi when questioned about the issue.

Chidambaram said he will be getting a report by 30 September on the status of large projects which are stuck, and will consult with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the first week of the October.

Referring to the review of investments plans of central public sector enterprises and 89 projects that are stuck, Chidambaram said the trouble was that there is no final decision-making authority for their clearance.

"Really in all these projects there is no one final decision making authority ... The EGoM (empowered group of ministers) experiment also doesn't seem to work. Even after EGoM decisions, many things are held back.

"Therefore, I suggested that we must have a NIB (National Investment Board) ... unless we create a system under which final decision emerges in a reasonable period of time, I am afraid these Rs1,000 crore-plus projects will not take off," he said.