PM Gati Shakti: 76 Key Infrastructure Projects Worth Rs 5.14 Lakh Crore Evaluated In One Year, NMP Adoption Grows Among Ministries

The PM Gati Shakti initiative has evaluated 76 infrastructure projects from various ministries worth around Rs 5.14 lakh crore in the last year.

Special secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Sumita Dawra, stated that the usage of the PM Gati Shakti — National Master Plan (NMP) has been increased by the central ministries and states also.

She added, "76 key infrastructure projects relating to railways, roads, shipping, industrial corridors, housing and urban affairs etc, worth Rs 5.14 lakh crore have been evaluated," as per an Economic Times report.

These projects include — Gurdaspur-Jammu-Srinagar natural gas pipeline worth Rs 6,931 crore; the Chennai-Trichy-Tuticorin Exp project worth Rs 30,502 crore, and Indo-Nepal Border-Haldia Corridor worth Rs 30,233 crore.

The projects have been recommended by the Network Planning Group (NPG) constituted under the PM Gati Shakti initiative launched in October 2021.

The NPG is accountable for overseeing all the logistics and connectivity initiatives that involve investments of more than Rs 500 crore.

The group consists of heads of the network planning wing of respective infrastructure ministries and will assist the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGOS), which is headed by the cabinet secretary.

NPG is approached by all departments for approval before creating a detailed project report (DPR) in the planning stage.

Once cleared by the group, projects follow the usual process of approval by the Finance Ministry and Cabinet, depending on the project.

The National Master Plan also has a digital component in the form of a GIS platform, which integrates the geospatial data related to the infrastructure in the country and planning portals of various ministries and departments.

According to Sumita Dawra, over 1,450 layers of data, including those related to land, ports, forest and highways are available on the portal.

She added that the portal's usage is growing among various ministries for project planning, including social sector departments and states.