North-east, being the most linguistically diversified region of the country, have always attracted linguists since earlier times across all parts of the world. This demands a lot of travelling and researching for the projects and takes a lot of pain while doing that. Therefore, while carrying out these projects a lot of money, time and resources are wasted due to uncertainties like bad weather conditions, which stop us from reaching the places of project research; remote areas where there is very few mode of communication and transportation and availability of right materials to carry out the projects.

All these factors lead to project cost overrun. Professionals who carry out such projects sometimes really struggle to manage such crisis. The issue of cost overrun did not seem to be of much importance earlier as there was lesser cost and most of the financial supports came from foreign universities and research institutes. But now, with the changing situation, when funds come from our own universities, it has been the matter of how faster one can complete a project and that too by minimizing the cost. I also faced similar situation once I was doing a project on Tibeto-Burman languages and had to travel around the interiors of the north-eastern part such as Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

We had to meet some speakers of a particular rare language of Tibeto-Burman family and rain disrupted our journey innumerable times. The only transport to reach there was a bullock cart which was also unable to take us to the destination. In that process, a week was delayed and ultimately we had to hire a helicopter to reach that place. The place was so remote that no cell phone towers were there and hence, no connectivity. Thus, this uncertainty caused us a huge cost in terms of money and time as well!

Presently, we are blessed with the right technologies by which we can integrate our planning sufficed with the information regarding the conceptual and practical framework for tracking and controlling projects. Despite having these technologies available for successfully carrying out projects, a core team should be aligned together to avoid the problem of cost overrun. With only 2/3 people working and managing a huge project, increases the risk of facing more problems. From the managerial aspect it is very important to manage the preliminary activities before a project can be started. It includes motivational factors and taking people along while performing the task.