New Delhi, Sep 2 - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was Wednesday given an overview of the Delivery Monitoring Unit (DMU) set up in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)

for monitoring the government's flagship programmes, new initiatives and iconic projects.

The DMU, which was set up in July, will ensure effective delivery of selected programmes through monitoring the outputs stated by the concerned ministry, fast-tracking of implementation and ensuring trouble-shooting through periodic reviews and informing the prime minister on a quarterly basis on the performance of the selected projects.

'At a 90-minute meeting, the prime minister acquainted himself with the delivery monitoring unit's mechanism. During UPA-1 there were 101 items in the National Common Minimum Programme which were being monitored by the PMO. Now, these have been reduced to a select menu of 18 items of high visibility and high impact projects,' a PMO release said.