Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the infrastructure oriented trajectory of development set by this year’s Union Budget would give an ‘extraordinary’ impetus to the India’s economy by further strengthening it.

Prime Minister’s comments came at a post-budget webinar on vision of ‘GatiShakti’ of India’s development in the 21st century here on Tuesday.

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“This year’s budget has set the pace (Gatishakti) of India’s development in 21st century . This direction  of ‘Infrastructure-based development’ will lead to extraordinary increase in the strength of our economy, creating many new possibilities of employment, “Prime Minister Modi said.

Seeking to present a comparative picture, the Prime Minister said, “In the year 2013-14, the direct capital expenditure of the Government of India was about two and a half lakh crore rupees, which has increased to seven and a half lakh crore rupees in the year 2022-23.”

Modi said  Infrastructure planning, implementation and monitoring will get a new direction from PM Gati-Shakti. This will also bring down the time and cost overrun of the projects.

“In PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan, more than 400 data layers are available now…24 digital systems of six Ministries are being integrated through ULIP (Unified Logistic Interface Platform).This will create a National Single Window Logistics Portal which will help in reducing the logistics cost…Our Exports will also be greatly helped by PM Gati-Shakti, our MSMEs will be able to be globally competitive,” Modi said adding ,“PM Gati-Shakti will ensure true public-private partnership in infrastructure creation from infrastructure planning to development and utilization stage.”

The Prime Minister further pointed to lack of coordination among the stakeholders in the traditional ways of completing projects. This was he said due to lack of clear information among the various concerned departments. “Due to PM Gatishakti, now everyone will be able to make their plan with complete information. This will also lead to optimum utilization of the country’s resources”, he maintained.

Prime Minister Modi also stressed on the need of PM Gatishakti by emphasizing the scale at which the government is undertaking infrastructure development. “In the year 2013-14, the direct capital expenditure of the Government of India was about two and a half lakh crore rupees, which has increased to seven and a half lakh crore rupees in the year 2022-23”, he said.

Modi said, “Strengthening the principle of cooperative federalism, our government has made a provision of one lakh crore rupees for the assistance of the states in this year’s budget. State governments will be able to use this amount on multimodal infrastructure and other productive assets.”

The Prime Minister mentioned referred to ‘National Ropeway Development’ programme to improve connectivity in the inaccessible hilly areas and ‘Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East’ (PM-DevINE) in this regard. Speaking about PLI initiative, he called upon the private sector to invest in the infrastructure development in the country.

Modi also informed that in PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan, more than 400 data layers are available now, informing about not just the existing and proposed infrastructure but also about the forest land and available industrial estate. He suggested that the private sector should use it more and more for their planning and all important information regarding the National Master Plan is now available on the single platform.

“Due to this it will be possible to get project alignment and various types of clearances at the DPR stage itself. This will also be helpful in reducing your Compliance Burden”, he said.

The Prime Minister also called upon the state governments to make PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan base for their projects and Economic Zones.

Modi said, “even today, the logistic cost in India is considered to be 13 to 14 percent of GDP. This is more than other countries. PM Gati-Shakti has a huge role in improving infrastructure efficiency, he said. He also  The alluded to Unified Logistic Interface Platform- ULIP provided in this budget and which is being adapted by the various government departments as per their needs, leading to reduced logistics cost. He said so far 24 Digital Systems of 6 Ministries are being integrated through ULIP. ”

This will create a National Single Window Logistics Portal which will help in reducing the logistics cost, he added.

The Prime Minister further said, “Our exports will also be greatly helped by PM Gati-Shakti, our MSMEs will be able to be Globally Competitive.”

He said that Gati-Shakti will ensure true public-private partnership in infrastructure creation from infrastructure planning to development and utilization stage.

“In this webinar, there should also be a brainstorming on how the private sector can achieve better outcomes in collaboration with the government system”, the Prime Minister said.