"It has been observed that the systemic delays constraints such as environmental clearances, statutory clearances, land related matters, fund constraints and security clearances are the major reasons for delay in the projects for which it is difficult to fix responsibility on any officer," Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Srikant Kumar Jena said.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, he also said that as on September 1, this year, as many as 272 projects were delayed out of 560 projects each worth Rs 150 crore or more under review of his Ministry.

He said this was against delay of 243 projects out of 553 under review of the ministry during the same period of last year.

Government has recently approved setting up of an investment tracking system to ensure speedy implementation of the infrastructure projects wherein National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council shall track all public sector projects with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore and above.