PRAGATI platform helped accelerate 340 projects worth $205 billion, says Oxford study

PRAGATI also allowed PM Narendra Modi to hold key infrastructure projects to account, the study has said.

India's digital governance platform Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI) has transformed the delivery of infrastructure projects by reducing delays in implementation, a study by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and the Gates Foundation has revealed.

"PRAGATI has driven accountability at the most senior level, and supported unprecedented federal and regional collaboration, accelerating 340 projects across the country, worth $205 billion, and cutting through decades of delays," the study, released on December 2, said.

“It has also enabled Indian Prime Minister Modi, personally to hold key infrastructure projects to account, challenging decision making and slashing red tape bureaucracy.”

So far, 44 PRAGATI meetings have been held and 355 projects with total cost of Rs 18.12 lakh crore reviewed.

In the latest meeting, seven projects were reviewed, which included two on road connectivity, two rail and one project each of the coal, power and water resources sectors.

The cost of these projects totalled more than Rs 76,500 crore. These projects are related to 11 states and union territories -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha, Goa, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

The case study said many of the 340 projects were anywhere from three to 20 years overdue. For some, most of the physical work had been completed and the project needed help closing out. Others had seen no construction at all.

PRAGATI, which features a digital dashboard for real-time project monitoring and supports video conference review meetings helped reduce the delay from decades to months.

Launched in 2015, the PRAGATI platform addresses public grievances as well as monitors and reviews important central programmes as well as projects flagged by states.

The case study highlights some of the projects PRAGATI, which mean progress in Hindi,  has helped fast track, including, the Chenab Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir, now the world’s highest rail bridge, the Bogibeel Bridge over the Brahmaputra in Assam, completed in 2018, and the Jal Jeevan Mission, a programme to provide indoor tap water connections to every rural household in India.

PRAGATI reviews have helped accelerate progress on this initiative by facilitating better coordination between the central ministry of Jal Shakti and state-level implementing agencies. “A review in 2021, for instance, led to a 20-percent increase in the rate of new tap connections in water-scarce regions over a six-month period,” the study said.

“In 2019, just 17 percent of all Indian households had running water; as of November 2024, 79 percent do," it said.

The study attributes PRAGATI's success to top-level, hands-on monitoring and review process by Modi, who typically chairs regular video-conference meetings that zoom in on several large infrastructure projects and at least one social development programme, as well as to new levels of collaboration across Centre-state and bureaucratic divides.