PM To Unveil Rs 100 Lakh-Crore Gati Shakti Master Plan Next Week

Aiming at giving a big push to connectivity to major industrial clusters across the country and also to generate employment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to launch Gati Shakti Master Plan next week.

On India’s 75th Independence Day, Modi had announced that the Centre will launch ‘PM Gati Shakti Master Plan’, a Rs 100 lakh-crore project for developing ‘holistic infrastructure’.

The plan is expected to be a major boost for job creation at a time when the country is recovering from a pandemic.

Notwithstanding the pandemic, the government has continued with the reform process and many strategic reforms were announced even during Covid-19.

In his speech, the PM pegged the project as a source of employment opportunities for the youth in future. "In the coming days, we will launch PM Gati Shakti Plan, a 100 lakh-crore national infrastructure master plan which will make a foundation for holistic infrastructure and give an integrated pathway to our economy,” Modi said.

Gati Shakti Plan as part of the National Master Plan will bring in holistic planning and development across the country. All economic zones and infrastructure development depicted in a single integrated platform will provide spatial visibility of physical linkages to promote comprehensive and integrated multi-modal national networks of transportation and logistics with the aim to enhance ease of living, ease of doing business, minimise disruption and expedite cost efficient competition of work.

The National Master Plan will boost eco-growth, attracting foreign investors and enhancing the country's global competitiveness thereby enabling smooth transportation of goods, people and services and creating employment opportunities.

The National Master Plan will also aid concerned ministries, departments to prioritise creating enhancement for ensuring last-mile connectivity for ecozones in a defined timeframe.

The development of a GIS-based ERP system in collaboration with Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics will enable all stakeholders and the Network planning group consisting of infrastructure connectivity, ministries in spatial planning, evidence-based decision making, administration and effective monitoring of the Master Plan on a periodical real time basis.

The PM Gati Shakti Plan for an integrated infrastructure growth that will help reduce logistics costs and make the economy competitive.

The National Infrastructure Pipeline and National Monetisation Pipeline coupled with a Gatishakti vision of the Prime Minister would lead to seamless movement of goods and services and generation of employment opportunities in the entire country.

The new scheme will also help break the silos between road, rail, air and waterways to reduce travel time, make manufacturing competitive, facilitate setting up future economic zones and creating employment opportunities.

Gati Shakti plan aims to help raise the global profile of local manufacturers and help them compete with their counterparts worldwide. It also raises possibilities of new future economic zones.

The scheme will take care of the country’s holistic infrastructure needs and will form the basis of the Amrut Kaal — the 25-year period till India celebrates 100 years of its Independence.

During the pandemic period of the past 18 months, it was not just the management of the impact of the pandemic, starting from a health crisis spilling over to the real economy and thereafter some impact onto the financial sector.

Managing each of those, but with very strong emphasis on stepping up the reforms, so that the economy can bounce back with a fast growth rate, and also the potential growth rate can be built.

The country is on the path of recovery. High supply chain and logistics cost make Indian products cheaper and viable for domestic as well global markets.

There is a need to adopt a holistic approach in creating modern infrastructure.

The Gati Shakti Master Plan will include existing projects of different ministries. The report quoted sources as saying that these may include food processing, IT parks, pharmaceutical, fishing clusters and harbours.

Aiming at making Indian products more competitive by cutting down the logistics costs, the Gati Shakti Master Plan would improve the supply chains.