The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has launched the promised ‘PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan’ on October 13, 2021 for multi modal connectivity. On the occasion, the Prime Minister said, “It will help India realize its dream of becoming the business capital of the world.”
The Prime Minister had announced the plan on the occasion of 75th Independence Day from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2021 in the celebration year of ‘Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav.’
Gati Shakti Master Plan is the third big step and a long impending reform in the direction of infrastructure development in India after the national infrastructure pipeline, and the national monetisation pipeline. With Rs 100 lakh crore investment, Gati Shakti master plan is a great push for the infrastructure sector in India.
What is Gati Shakti Master Plan? Salient Features
In simple words, the Gati Shakti Master Plan will bring maximum planning and coordination and minimise delays between the government stakeholders especially different ministries. The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan was launched on October 13, 2021 by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. The Plan was announced on August 15, 2021 by the Prime Minister.
The salient features of the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan are:
- Gati Shakti Plan provides integrated National Infrastructure and the Infrastructure projects of Rs.110 lakh crore during 2020-25 will be under the ambit of this programme
- The master plan would be focusing more on ending inter-ministerial silos.
- The plan will connect and integrate different modes of transport like roads, railways, Aviation, Ports. It will remove gaps in the transport system and will bring about a seamless travel & transport system and will help in saving time and money with easy movement of cargo, goods, people anywhere in the country.
- With an aim to integrate Central Government ministries for faster decision taking with proper co-ordination, presently the plan has brought 16 important ministries related to infrastructure on one platform. These are railways, roads and highways, petroleum & gas, telecom, power, shipping, and aviation, among others.
- Gati Shakti plan will enhance India's global competitiveness through next-generation infrastructure and seamless multi-modal connectivity to ensure seamless movement of goods and people and improve the ease of living as well as the ease of doing business in the country.
- Under the programme, a digital platform has been created for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects. The platform will facilitate each of the ministerial department to have data access for the work done by other ministerial department on infrastructure development. It will not only be helpful in effective further planning and execution but also will be helpful in better coordination.
- The platform will provide high resolution satellite images, infrastructure, utilities, administrative boundaries, land and logistics
- The project will be spearheaded by the logistics division in the commerce ministry
- There will be an empowered group of secretaries headed by the Cabinet secretary to see the implementation of this major initiative.
Need of the Gati Shakti Programme
On the occasion of launching the Gati Shakti initiative, PM Modi stressed on the wide gap between macro planning and micro implementation, problems of lack of coordination, lack of advance information, and how thinking and working in silos were leading to hampered construction and wastage of budget. All this has led to launch of this programme. Now, most of the mega projects under the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline will be monitored under Gati Shakti.
How the Gati-Shakti Plan Works?
- There is an Integrated Multimodal Network Planning Group (NPG) to execute Gati Shakti.
- NPG is entrusted with unified planning and integration of proposals as well as connectivity projects which are not part of the current master plan with an estimated cost of over Rs 500 crore
- The National Networking Group consists of experts or officials from all the stakeholder departments
- The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is the nodal agency
- The group is responsible for sharing their specific Action Plans for 2020-21 to 2024-25 with each other for facilitating integration of networks, enhancing optimisation through modification/expansion/new network creation to avoid duplication of works for holistic development of any region as well as reducing logistics costs through micro-plan detailing.
Faster Plnning & Execution: Principal Aim of Gati Shakti
Gati Shakti aims to lend more speed (Gati) and power (Shakti) to projects by connecting all concerned departments on one platform. The Gati Shakti initiative has been an important part of a massive infrastructure push of the Modi government's key initiatives in the second term.
This programme is required to help in coordinating and synchronising the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination along with bridging the gap between planning and implementation of the projects at various levels.
Infrastructure Development Targets under Gati Shakti
The Rs 100 lakh crore Gati Shakti National Master Plan fixes targets up to 2024-25 for all infrastructure ministries and presently has following targets to be completed by 2024-25:
- The plan includes 11 industrial corridors, achieving a Rs 1.7 lakh crore turnover in defence production and having 38 electronics manufacturing clusters and 109 pharma clusters by 2024-25
- For the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, the target is to have National Highways of 2 lakh kms, completion of four or six-lane national highways of 5,590 km along coastal areas and all state capitals in north-east to be connected with four-lane national highways or 2 two-lane national highways
- For the Railways, the target by 2024-25 is to handle cargo of 1,600 million tons from 1,210 million tons in 2020. It also has the target of decongesting 51 percent of the Railway network by completing additional lines and implementation of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs)
- The gas pipeline network in the country is aimed to be doubled to 34,500 km by 2024-25 by building an additional 17,000 km long trunk pipeline connecting major demand and supply centres for industries
- In power lines, the total transmission network by 2024-25 is targeted to be 4.52 lakh circuit km and the renewable energy capacity is expected to be increased to 225 GW from 87.7 GW presently.
Gati Shakti is different from Earlier NIP
- Gati Shakti is different from the already announced National Infrastructure Pipeline and national monetisation pipeline.
- Gati Shakti master plan is more about bringing the coordination for the planning of all infrastructure connectivity projects that have been announced under the national infrastructure pipeline.
Advantages of Gati Shakti Plan: Pros
- Launch of Gati Shakti was lauded by the industry body like Confederation of Indian Industries. It said, “The plan is laser-like in its makeover of India’s infrastructure and is expected to impart significant impetus to national development”.
- Experts are of the view that the GIS-based ERP system for mapping the entire country is the essence of the Gati Shakti master plan. This feature under this master plan can change the way planning and administration is done by the ministries
- PM Gati Shakti master plan will cut logistics costs to GDP to 8 per cent, which was at 14 per cent when the Modi government came to the power.
- Under this master plan, the Indian Railways will establish around 500 multi-modal cargo terminals in four to five years
- The portal will also allow various government departments to track, in real-time and at one centralised place. Through this portal, one can track the progress of various projects, especially those with multi-sectoral and multi-regional impact.
- State governments are also being encouraged to join the platform so that information and data on all infrastructure and connectivity projects can be shared to enhance synergy
- A network planning group with representatives from all stakeholder ministries will be set up to meet regularly to ensure coordination
- Changes to the national master plan can also be done by an empowered group of secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
- All villages in India will have 4G network coverage.
- Expansion of the national highways network to 2 lakh kilometre will help faster movement of goods and people
- Creation of 220 new airports, helicopters and water aerodromes, 17000 km of new gas pipeline network will boost national as well as regional economy
- Integration of Rail, Road, Aviation and ports will help in remote area development also with faster movement of goods and people
- Cost of movement, logistics will be reduced resulting in lower cost of goods and commodities More Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises will come up in remote areas offering economic growth and employment
- Infra development will require man power both skilled and unskilled. This will increase the employment
Gati Shakti Plan: Cons
- It becomes sometimes very difficult to acquire the land for the infrastructure projects as it adversely impacts the lives of the people living on Agriculture
- Construction of large projects result in uprooting of thousands of trees which causes natural calamities and environmental hazards also
- There are political rivalries also between the Union Government and many State Governments. As a result it becomes very difficult to launch and complete the projects
Accordingly, the success of Gati Shakti plan depends upon the proper coordination among various departments of Central and State Governments, proper planning, and effective implementation
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