Gati Shakti Master Plan To Target Doubling Of Highways, Gas Pipeline And Airports: Report

A network of two lakh km of national highways, doubling gas pipeline network to 35,000 km, increasing number of airports (including airstrips and aerodromes) to 220 and developing 11 industrial corridors are part of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi's flagship Rs 100 lakh crore Gati Shakti Master Plan.

The master plan announced by the PM to mark the nation's 75th Independence Day also aims to achieve a Rs 1.7 lakh crore turnover in defence production and having 38 electronics manufacturing clusters and 109 pharma clusters by 2024-25.

PM Modi will unveil the mega plan to improve India's infrastructure on Wednesday (October 13), reports News18.

"In the proposed national master plan, all existing and proposed economic zones have been mapped along with the multimodal connectivity infrastructure in a single platform ranging in three time periods, i.e., status as on 2014-15, achievements made by 2020-21 and planned interventions up to 2024-25 for movement of people, goods and services. The comprehensive map provides a bird's eye view of infrastructure development with key layers based on completion timelines of various economic zones, infrastructure and utilities across the country," says an official note of the plan accessed by News18.

It also aims to connect all state capitals in the northeast with four-lane or two two-lane national highways.

The plan targets to increase cargo handled by Railways of 1,600 million tonnes by 2024 from 1,210 million tons in 2020.

It also includes implementation of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) and decongestion of 51 per cent of the Railway network,

Intending to connect all states with the trunk Natural Gas Pipeline Network by 2027, the mega infrastructure plan aims to double the gas pipeline network in the country to 34,500 km by 2024-25 by building an additional 17,000 km long trunk pipeline.