Public Investments In Infrastructure To Be Guided By PM Gati Shakti; Approach Driven By Seven 'Engines': FM Nirmala Sitharaman

"PM Gati Shakti is a transformative approach for economic growth and sustainable development," Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during her budget speech today (1 February).

The government sees seven engines of PM Gati Shakti:

1. Roads

2. Railways

3. Airports

4. Ports

5. Mass Transport

6. Waterways

7. Logistics infrastructure

"All seven engines will pull forward the economy in unison," said Sitharaman.

All projects pertaining to these seven 'engines' will be aligned with the Gati Shakti framework. "The touchstone of the master plan would be world-class modern infrastructure and logistics synergy amongst different modes of movement, both of people and goods, and location of projects," she said.

The Gati Shakti plan will also include infrastructure development carried out by state governments.

Finance Minister Sitharaman also said the PM Gati Shakti master plan for expressways would be formulated in fiscal year 2022-23 for faster movement of people and goods, and that the national highways network would be extended by 25,000 kilometres (km), also in 2022-23.

"Rs 20,000 crore would be mobilised through innovative ways of financing to complement the public resources", she added.

The Finance Minister also said "data exchange among all mode operators will be brought on Unified Logistics Interface platform."

The PM Gati Shakti Master Plan is a national plan for multi-modal connectivity. It was inaugurated by the government on 13 October 2021.

The plan intends to solve the coordination problem among various government departments related to public infrastructure through a software solution.

It involves setting up a new single portal that will include information on all the current infrastructure projects, including Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, and UDAN.

It will also integrate information on the existing facilities, such as special economic zones, textile clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, and agriculture zones across the country on to the website.

These projects will be geo-mapped and can be tracked real-time. Apart from this, it will also provide analytical and decision-making tools to all investors and stakeholders involved in policy making in the country.

In the beginning, 16 departments and ministries, such as the Commerce Ministry, Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and Ministry of Power will be integrated into the portal. This will ensure coordination among various ministries and ensure that inter-ministerial permits for a project are granted faster and every concerned department stays in the loop.

Connecting these projects on a single platform will also reduce logistics cost and make Indian exports more competitive. At present, logistics cost the country 13 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), which is higher than developed countries.

Infrastructure projects that have a tremendous multiplier effect are essential to create jobs as well as fill in the infrastructure gaps of a developing country. The pace of infrastructure projects has also increased rapidly.

In his inaugural speech for Gati Shakti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged state governments to join the plan so that more assets that fall under the state governments’ domain can be attached to the portal.

The Rs 100 crore master plan includes several infrastructure projects, such as doubling the number of airports, construction of 19,000 km of gas pipelines, and development of industrial and defence corridors and manufacturing clusters, among others, by 2024-25.