The Construction Ministry listed 34 public works projects Friday for possible scrapping based on its own criteria for stopping wasteful spending.

Construction Minister Chikage Ogi released the list to reporters after a Cabinet meeting. The 34 are in addition to another 102 projects under the ministry's control that the ruling coalition urged the government to scrap earlier in the week.

Terminating the 34 projects, including 12 in sewage works, eight in road works and four in waterways, would save 110.4 billion yen, the ministry said.

The ministry has adopted its own criteria for rooting out projects that have dragged on for more than 20 years since their adoption by the government and are unlikely to make any progress in the future.

On Monday, the ruling coalition urged the government to cancel 233 projects, including the Construction Ministry's 102 projects, based on a set of four criteria for deciding whether to scrap ongoing or suspended public works projects, as part of a plan to make Japan's huge public works budgets more effective.

One of the criteria calls for projects that have not yet commenced, despite the passage of five years or more since being adopted, to be scrapped.

Another calls for scrapping projects that have remained unfinished despite the passage of 20 years or more since they were initially scheduled to be completed.

The third criterion urges the scrapping of projects that are not making any headway at present, while the fourth targets projects that the government has not adopted despite the passage of 10 years or more since the launching of feasibility studies.

In a related development, the government adopted Friday a set of measures aimed at cutting construction and maintenance costs for public works projects over the next nine years from the fiscal 1996 level, officials said.

The measures to be implemented from the current fiscal year through the end of fiscal 2008 include using longer-lasting concrete and other durable materials in constructing bridges and buildings to lower their life cycle costs.

In fiscal 1999, construction and maintenance costs totaled 767.7 billion yen, down 9.6 percent from the 1996 level.