Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal today held a meeting with top officials to review the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) to review all the existing and proposed development initiatives of various infrastructure ministries/departments for better synergy.
The meeting was attended by V K Tripathi, Chairman, Railway Board, Dr. Sanjeev Ranjan, Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Anurag Jain, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade, among others.
The NMP will help achieve the objective of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ by providing visibility to various stakeholders involved in the development of infrastructure. It will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and state governments. Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, Agri zones etc. will also be covered under the master plan.
This will boost economic growth, attract investments and enhance the country’s global competitiveness.
During a presentation made by Special Secretary, Logistics Division, DPIIT, the ministry wise progress on the targets set under the PM GatiShakti was discussed. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has completed 1,41,190 km of National Highways as on 31st March 2022 out of the set target of 2,00,000 km for 2024-25.
Similarly, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has completed the laying of a gas pipeline of 20,000 km out of 34,500 for the same time period. The Ministry of Power has already surpassed its target for laying the transmission network of 4,54,200 km by the end of March 2022.
The Department of Telecommunication has created the OFC network of 33,00,997 km as of 31st March 2022 against the set target of 50,00,000 km for 2024-25.
It was noted during the meeting that the institutional framework has been brought into action. Accordingly, the apex body – an Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary has been constituted to approve any changes in the Master Plan for meeting any emerging requirements.
An integrated Multimodal Network Planning Group (NPG) has been operationalised with representation from various connectivity infrastructure Ministries/Departments involving their heads of the Network Planning Division for unified planning and integration of the proposals and to assist the EGoS.
Highlighting the potential of the PM GatiShakti NMP, the minister emphasised that improved multimodal connectivity to various economic zones will ensure seamless movement of goods and people. The PM GatiShakti NMP portal will provide a bird’s eye view of infrastructure and facilitate better network planning and faster clearances.