New Delhi: The PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) mechanism has emerged as a key driver in accelerating large infrastructure projects and resolving long-pending bottlenecks, helping India’s economy gain momentum, Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan said on 2 January.
Briefing the media after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the 50th PRAGATI review meeting earlier this week, Somanathan, along with other secretaries of the key ministries, said the technology-enabled platform has institutionalised coordination between the Centre and states, significantly improving the pace of execution of public projects.
According to officials, chronic time and cost overruns in public projects were largely the result of coordination gaps between central ministries, between the Centre and states, and within state governments themselves.
The PRAGATI platform, conceptualised by the Prime Minister in 2015, was designed to address these gaps through direct, outcome-based reviews led by the PM with Chief Secretaries of states and senior central officials.
So far, 50 PRAGATI meetings have been held. Under the mechanism, projects and issues are tracked through a multi-level escalation and monitoring system, with complex and critical issues brought up for review at the highest level.
Post-meeting, a structured follow-up mechanism ensures implementation, with the Cabinet Secretariat monitoring projects and ministries reviewing schemes and grievances under continuous oversight of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Officials said PRAGATI currently covers over 3,300 projects worth more than Rs 85 lakh crore, along with 61 major government schemes and grievances across 36 sectors.
As per the PRAGATI and Project Monitoring Group (PMG) portal, 7,735 issues have been raised so far, of which 7,156 have been resolved, translating to a resolution rate of about 73 per cent. In projects directly reviewed by the Prime Minister, 2,958 of 3,187 issues have been resolved.
The Cabinet Secretary highlighted that the platform now resolves, on average, one issue every working day, with land acquisition, environmental clearances, right-of-way and construction approvals accounting for a majority of cases.
Officials also cited major infrastructure projects that gained momentum through PRAGATI interventions. These include the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link, commissioned in June 2025 after decades of delays, the Navi Mumbai International Airport, commissioned in December 2025 and the Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge over the Brahmaputra, commissioned in 2018.
Sector-wise, roads and highways account for the highest number of PRAGATI-reviewed projects, followed by railways, power and petroleum. The platform has also contributed to a sharp rise in capital expenditure, with combined central and PSU capex seeing strong growth over the last decade.
An external study by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School has described PRAGATI as a transformative digital governance platform and a global benchmark for real-time project monitoring and inter-governmental coordination.
It was also highlighted that PRAGATI has become a permanent institutional mechanism to ensure timely infrastructure delivery, cooperative federalism and stronger accountability at the highest levels of governance.
