PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan seeks to improve coordination between Ministries and their Departments improve project management at the National Level.
The Prime Minister had launched the PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity between various ministries, on 13 October 2021. This is essentially a digital platform that brings together various Ministries and departments, including the Railways and Roadways, for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects. The multi-modal connectivity is aimed at providing integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services from one mode of transport to another. It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people.
The objective of PM Gati Shakti is to ensure that all departments have visibility of each other's activities providing critical data for planning and execution of projects in a comprehensive manner. By doing this, different departments will be able to prioritise work and execute projects optimally and smoothly.
The scheme incorporates the infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc. Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri-zones are covered to improve connectivity and to make Indian business more competitive. PM Gati Shakti will also leverage technology extensively by including spatial planning tools with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) imagery developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics).
Traditionally, there was lack of coordination between different Departments. For instance, once a road was constructed, other agencies dug up the constructed road again for activities like laying of underground cables, gas pipelines etc. This caused great inconvenience and resulted in wasteful expenditure. To address this, efforts were made to increase coordination so that all cables, pipelines etc. could be laid simultaneously. Steps have also been taken to address other issues like prolonged approval process, multiplicity of regulatory clearances etc. In the last few years, the Government has ensured unprecedented focus on infrastructure through a holistic outlook. This helps to address the past issues through institutionalizing holistic planning for stakeholders for major infrastructure projects. Instead of planning & designing separately in silos, the projects will be designed and executed with a common vision. This 100 lakh crore project aims to develop a ‘holistic infrastructure’ including development, productivity growth, energy transmission, climate action, and investment financing.
Seven engines drive the approach of PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan; roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways, and logistics infrastructure.
Institutional Structure
A Network Planning Group (NPG) comprising of technical experts from each of the 16 infrastructure ministries will examine every connectivity project that costs more than Rs. 500 cores. In the next step, the projects cleared by the NPG will be scrutinised and approved by an Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) headed by the Cabinet Secretary. In this way, infrastructure project implementation will be speeded up and facilitated with high level attention and coordination.
The NPG consists of
Ministry of Railways
Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
Ministry of Civil Aviation
Ministry of Power
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas; and
Department of Telecommunication
The Ministries/Departments represented through EGoS are: -
Ministry of Railways
Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
Ministry of Civil Aviation
Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas
Ministry of Power
Department of Telecommunications
Ministry of Coal
Ministry of Mines
Department of Chemicals & Petro-Chemicals
Department of Fertilizers
Ministry of Steel
Department of Expenditure
Department of Food and Public Distribution
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
Ministry of Tourism
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying
Department of Commerce
NITI Aayog
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; and
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
A project monitoring group under the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal trade (DPIIT) will monitor the progress of key projects in real-time. They will also report any inter-ministerial issues to a group of ministries, who will then aim to resolve these.
The Six Pillars
PM Gati Shakti is based on the following six pillars:
Comprehensiveness: Include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments within one centralized portal. Each Department will then have visibility of each other's activities providing critical data for planning and execution of projects comprehensively.
Prioritization: Through cross-sectoral interactions, different Departments will be able to prioritize their projects.
Optimization: After identifying critical gaps, the National Master Plan will enable different ministries in planning for projects. For the transportation of the goods from one place to another, the Plan will help in selecting the most optimum route in terms of time and cost.
Synchronization: Individual Ministries and Departments often work in silos. There is lack of coordination in planning and implementation of the project resulting in delays. The National Master Plan will help in synchronizing and co-ordinating activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance.
Analytical: The plan will provide the entire data at one place with GIS based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility to the executing agency.
Dynamic: All Ministries and Departments will be able to see, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects. Through the GIS platform, the satellite imagery will give on-ground progress periodically and progress of the projects will be updated on a regular basis on the portal. It will help in identifying the vital interventions for enhancing and updating the Master Plan.
Targets
PM Gati Shakti has set targets for all infrastructure ministries and the targets to be achieved by 2024-25 are:
11 industrial corridors and 2 new defence corridors (Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh), achieving a 1.7 lakh crore turnover in defence production.
Around 38 electronics manufacturing clusters
109 pharma clusters
Increase in the total cargo handled at Indian ports to 1759 MTPA
Adding over 200 airports, helipads, and water aerodromes.
Extending 4G connectivity to all villages
Adding 17,000 km to the gas pipeline network is being planned
Key highlights on PM Gati Shakti National Masterplan in Budget 2022-23:
To facilitate quick movement of people and goods, a scheme for expressway will be framed in 2022-23.
Twenty thousand crores will be allotted to expand the national highway network by 25,000 kilometres in 2022-23.
All exchanged data will be brought to a new Unified Logistics Interface Platform. This will help to operate different modes of transport and locations and also allow access to real-time information.
A new-open mobility stack is introduced to organise effortless passenger travel.
Through public-private-partnership (PPP) mode, contracts for implementation of multi-modal logistic parks at four locations will be awarded in 2022-23.
Indian railways will start new products and logistics services for small farmers and minor and medium enterprises.
Railways will integrate railways and postal networks for easier transportation of parcels.
Under the ‘Kavach’ initiative, a 2,000-kilometre railway network will be covered for safety and capacity expansion.
In the next three years, 400-new generation Vande Bharata trains will be initiated. They will have better energy efficiency and good facilities to improve the travelling experience.
Additionally, 100 PM Gati Shakti cargo terminals will be developed for multi-modal logistics facilities.
Innovative financing options will be supported to build proper metro systems.
Multi-model connectivity will be developed between mass urban transport and railways stations.
‘One station, one product’ concept will be spread to help local businesses.
The National Ropeways Development Programme will be managed in a public-private-partnership mode. It is known as Parvatmala, a preferred ecologically sustainable alternative to conventional road systems in hilly areas.
What is the need for the Plan?
To address the wide gap between macro planning and micro implementation due to the lack of coordination and advanced information sharing, arising on account of departments thinking and working in silos.
As per reports, studies estimate the logistics costs in India at about 13-14% of GDP as against about 7-8% in developed economies. With this high logistical cost, the competitiveness of India’s exports is greatly reduced.
It will increase economic activities and create employment on a large scale due to the creation of quality infrastructure for sustainable development.
The scheme is in synergy with the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) which was announced to provide a clear framework for monetization and give potential investors a ready list of assets to generate investor interest.
A holistic and integrated transport connectivity strategy will greatly support ‘Make in India’ and integrate different modes of transport.
Another push for such a scheme was the lack of demand in the post-Covid-19 scenario, which in turn led to a lack of private demand and investment demand.
Due to land acquisition delays and litigation issues, the rate of implementation of projects is very slow on global standards- issues that the scheme will address.