Evaluating The Project: Speed Thrills But Kills!

"A Project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value."- Wikipedia.

- Dr B K Mukhopadhyay

Actually, a project refers to a set of development measures undertaken either by an individual or by the Government for the benefit of a class of persons or for the community as a whole [e. g. utilizing water resources of a region for the benefit of the population through irrigation, flood control, fishing, power generation, etc.]

Under the ongoing facts and circumstances hitting all of the economies big or small the crucial requirement is there to ensure that the projects taken to boost up activities [call it stimulus or jump start] should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound, which, in turn, should be evaluated and accordingly reviewed as the situation warrants.

Since a project usually involves huge expenditure private efforts often prove to be inadequate to shoulder it. Hence State's participation becomes essential .The State has to shoulder the responsibility by undertaking projects of social /strategic importance. A Project is therefore a public investment where profit maximization cannot be the sole criterion. A public investment aims at rendering maximum social service by maximizing the benefit of the project concerned at minimum possible cost to undertake those projects which facilitate the progress of the entire economy.

As it is not possible to undertake a huge number of projects at a time the question of choice whether or not a particular project is worthwhile which is the best of several alternative projects or when to undertake a particular project - comes up before the decision makers Different criteria of project evaluation are used for the same 1) the benefit-cost criterion, 2) the rate of return criterion, 3) the maximization of benefit over cost criterion.