PM GATI Shakti

Make PDF

Manifest Pedagogy:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2021, announced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti National Master Plan’ worth Rs 100 trillion,aims to boost economic growth  through infrastructure building.The holistic infrastructure development programme  plans to improve the productivity of industries and employment opportunities.  It is considered to be the government’s integrated approach to developing modern railways, roadways, waterways and airways.It will ensure creating a closely-knit high-speed growth environment for the citizens of India.

Content

About PM Gati Shakti

• PM Gati Shakti aims to institutionalise holistic planning for major infrastructure projects.
• The national master plan lays the foundation of the overall infrastructure in the country and provides an integrated and holistic path to the economy. The Rs 100 trillion project is aimed at easier inter-connectivity between road, rail, air and waterways to reduce travel time and enhance industrial productivity.
• The Gati Shakti masterplan will use geo-mapping and real-time data in one centralised portal to ensure that key departments and states have visibility over major projects being planned, especially the ones which have multi-sectoral and multi-regional reach.
• PM Gati Shakti will incorporate 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 will be covered to improve connectivity & make Indian businesses more competitive. 
• It will also leverage technology extensively including spatial planning tools with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) imagery developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics).
• Gati Shakti Digital Platform: It involves the creation of a common umbrella platform through which infrastructure projects can be planned and implemented in an efficacious manner by way of coordination between various ministries/departments on a real-time basis.

PM Gati Shakti is based on six pillars

• Comprehensiveness: It will include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralised portal. Each and every Department will now have visibility of each other’s activities providing critical data while planning & execution of projects in a comprehensive manner.
• Prioritisation: Through this, different Departments will be able to prioritise their projects through cross-sectoral interactions.
• Optimization: The National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after identification of critical gaps. 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.
• Synchronisation: PM Gati Shakti will help in synchronising the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination of work between them.
• 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 now be able to visualise, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects, through the GIS platform, as 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.

Need for such a initiative

• Clearances-One of the biggest bottlenecks was multiplicity of approvals and delayed clearances.
• Implementation-Wide gap between macro planning and micro implementation.
• Problems of lack of coordination-Individual ministries and departments often work in silos and there is lack of coordination in planning and implementation of the project resulting in delays. 
• Lack of advance information, thinking and working in silos were leading to hampered construction and wastage of budget.
• The logistic cost in India is considered to be 13-14 percent of GDP and this is more than other countries.

PM Gati Shakti plan goals

• 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.
• Road Transport and Highways Ministry, the target is having National Highways of 2 lakh km, 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 two two-lane national highways.
• Aviation will receive a massive boost, with around 200 new airports, heliports and water aerodromes envisioned in the plan.
• Railways, the target by 2024-25 is to handle cargo of 1,600 million tonnes from 1,210 million tonnes in 2020, decongesting 51 percent of the Railway network by completing additional lines and implementation of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs).
• Civil Aviation, the target is to double the existing aviation footprint to have a total of 220 airports, heliports and water aerodromes by 2025 which would mean building additional 109 such facilities by then. 
• In Shipping, the national master plan says the target by 2024-25 is to have total cargo capacity to be handled at the ports at 1,759 MMTPA from 1,282 MMTPA in 2020.
• 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, as per the plan. 
• In Power lines, the total transmission network by 2024-25 is targeted to be 4.52 lakh circuit km and the renewable energy capacity will be increased to 225 GW from 87.7 GW presently.
• 4G connectivity for the villages by FY22.
• 20 new mega food parks,202 fishing clusters/harbours/landing centres.

Significance

• Demand-India’s production-linked incentive of the government is likely to generate demand for several other sectors, including cement, metal, and power, and more importantly, generate employment.
  •  It would also make manufacturing globally competitive.
• Create opportunities-Gati Shakti will also create opportunities for new future economic zones and it aims to reduce the transportation time and improve Industrial productivity with the connectivity among roads.
• This investment initiative will boost the post-pandemic economy and improve the country’s indigenous production of technologies to reduce dependency on other nations. 
• Promote economic growth-The boost for infrastructure is in line with the government’s initiatives to scale up capital expenditure in infrastructure building to promote economic growth.
• Rejuvenation to manufacture– the Gatishakti plan will become the basis of India’s rejuvenation to manufacture world-class products using new-age technology and cutting-edge innovation.
• To get all relevant stakeholders aligned for creating the right size infrastructure at a suitable location expeditiously.
• MSME-This scheme will hugely benefit our MSME sector in becoming a part of high-speed growth of our economy.
• Enhance business opportunities-This scheme will not only ensure a widespread reach of basic amenities to the remotest areas of our country but will also significantly enhance business opportunities for inclusive growth.
• Tourism-Infrastructure will be key to development of tourism, including spiritual and medical tourism.

Issues associated

• Low Credit Offtake: Despite the government’s strong banking sector reforms and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code yielding approximately Rs. 2.4 lakh crore in bad loan recoveries, there are concerns about declining credit offtake trends.
• Land acquisition delays and litigation issues, the rate of implementation of projects is very slow on global standards.
• Clearances-Getting approvals is very difficult in terms of land access, environmental clearances; also impending litigation in court delays the infrastructure projects.
• Demand-In the post-Covid-19 scenario,there is a lack of private demand and investment demand.

WayForward

• Need to address structural and macroeconomic stability concerns, emanating from high public expenditure.
• Infrastructure development will play an important role in India’s aim to become a $5 trillion economy.
• Centre-State coordination for effective implementations of projects.

Make PDF