PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kicked off much talked about PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity.

The Prime Minister had already announced 'PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan' in his Independence Day speech on August 15 this year.

What is Gati Shakti?

The national master plan is aimed at
- breaking inter-ministerial silos and integrating the planning and designing of projects with a common and holistic vision
- enhance India's global competitiveness through next-generation infrastructure and seamless multi-modal connectivity
- ensure seamless movement of goods and people
- enhance the ease of living as well as the ease of doing business in the country
It aims to lend more speed (Gati) and power (Shakti) to projects by connecting all concerned departments on one platform.

Digital platform

Under the programme, a digital platform has also been created which will bring 16 ministries including rail and roadways together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
- The platform will provide high resolution satellite images, infrastructure, utilities, administrative boundaries, land and logistics.

Implementation of the initiative

There will be an Integrated Multimodal Network Planning Group (NPG) which will be 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 will consist of experts or officials from all the stakeholder departments.
The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade will be the nodal agency.
The group will be 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.

What are the targets under Gati Shakti?

The Rs 100 lakh crore national master 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.
It fixes targets up to 2024-25 for all infrastructure ministries.

Road Transport and Highways Ministry

Like for the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, the target is
- to have National Highways of 2 lakh km
- completion of four or six-lane national highways of 5,590 km along coastal areas
- all state capitals in north-east to be connected with four-lane national highways or two two-lane national highways

Indian Railways

For 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)

Energy

Further, 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.
And 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.

The need