News: Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a National Master Plan for the integrated and coordinated infrastructure development of major projects in the country. The aim of the Gati Shakti Scheme is to execute multi-modal infrastructure projects with coordinated planning to bring down logistics costs. Read the press release here.
What is PM Gati Shakti Scheme?
The major aim of this scheme is to ensure integrated planning and implementation of infrastructure projects in the next four years, with a focus on speeding up the works on the ground, saving costs, and also generating employment. The Gati Shakti Scheme is launched with the aim of achieving three basic goals namely,
- Seamless multimodal connectivity for facilitating easy movement of goods & people,
- Improved prioritisation, optimal usage of resources, timely creation of capacities, and
- Resolution of issues like disjointed planning, standardisation & clearances.
Lets understand in Simple Language:
We have many times witnessed that an infrastructure project gets initiated, the ministry or the concerned department works on the particular project, taxpayers’ money is spent and the project gets completed. But consider a scenario where the infrastructure project is of the development of a road. The ministry works on laying the road and the project gets completed.
However, after the completion of the project, the other ministries and departments are provided with the duty of laying optical fibers for internet connection, etc. At such times the government has to dig up the new and completely built road only because there was no coordination between the two concerned ministries and the departments.
For such situations, the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan has been launched to ensure that all the stakeholders of the infrastructure projects are well informed and kept in the loop of the daily development and progress of the project completion.
Now, with this plan in execution, the ministry dealing with the development of roads can coordinate with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), for integration and coordination and timely completion of the project.
Watch the video for more details about the Gati Shakti Scheme:
How will Gati Shakti Scheme function?
A Gati Shakti Digital Platform will be designed as a common umbrella platform through which various ministries can coordinate and plan the execution of projects. Here, projects include all the ongoing and upcoming future projects. This will be done on a real-time basis with the involvement of ISRO.
Gati Shakti Yojana seeks to use technologies like Geographic Information System (GIS) – based Enterprise Resource Planning for evidence-based decision-making. This will be done along with planning tools for route planning, dashboard-based periodic monitoring, and the latest satellite imagery. Also, it uses satellite imagery available from ISRO and base maps from the Survey of India. Visualization of BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics) maps will be available to the masses including the private sector to bring transparency.
Moreover, the Gati Shakti National Master Plan will subsume the Rs 111 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) launched in 2019. The Scheme has an ambitious plan to develop 11 industrial corridors and 2 new defense corridors – in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, expand the length of the national highway network to 2 lakh km, create 220 new airports, heliports, and water aerodromes, provide 4G connectivity to all the villages and lay more than 17,000 km of the gas pipeline network.
For this, the national master plan will include 16 ministries including railways, civil aviation, petroleum, MEITY, shipping, road transport, textiles, and food processing at the initial stage. For the execution and planning an empowered group of secretaries, headed by the Cabinet secretary, will be formed for quick decision-making and DIPP (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) will be the nodal agency.
Conclusion:
The proper execution of the PM Gati Shakti Scheme will help in removing the long-standing issues such as disjointed planning, lack of standardization, problems with clearances, etc. Not just this, but a robust centralized system will bring clarity on how different regions and industrial hubs in the country are linked, particularly for the last-mile connectivity.
A holistic and integrated transport connectivity strategy will support Make in India and integrate different modes of transport thus moving towards Atmanirbhar Bharat. It will help the government to spend less on the logistics costs thus improving India’s competitiveness in exports.
All in all the project aims to synchronize activities relating to infrastructure building in an area to help Central and state agencies, urban local bodies, and the private sector to effectively coordinate, plan and execute. The project is also in line with India’s effort towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of creating quality infrastructure, increase economic activities in the country and generate employment on a large scale.
Questions Related to the topic:
Q. How will the Gati Shakti Yojana give impetus to the slagging infrastructural projects in the country? (10M)
Q Discuss the possible hindrance to the successful execution of the celebrated National Master Plan. (15M)
Q. Consider the following statements regarding the Gati Shakti Scheme:
1. This scheme was launched by PM Modi for and integrated and seamless development of infrastructure projects in the country.
2. The Scheme includes all the ministries and their departments for enhanced planning.
3. A digital platform will be created and the use of a Geographic Information System will be made for decision making.
Which of the above statements is correct?
A. only 2 and 3
B. Only 1 and 2
C. Only 1 and 3
D. 1,2,and 3
Ans – C
Q. Which of the following is true about the National Infrature Pipeline:
1) NIP was created to enable a forward outlook on infrastructure projects which will create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, thereby making growth more inclusive.
2) It has outlined plans to invest more than ₹110 lakh crore on infrastructure projects by 2024-25, with the Centre, States, and the private sector to share the capital expenditure in a 50:25:25 formula.
3) The dashboard is being hosted on the India Investment Grid, IIG. IIG is an interactive and dynamic online platform that showcases d and real-time investment opportunities in the country.
Options :
a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all the above
Ans – C
The ratio is 39:39: 22 for the Centre, States, and Private sector respectively.
Q. Consider the following statements about National Infrastructure Pipeline
(1) NIP has a total projected investment of Rs 111 lakh crore
(2) Share of Private sector in total projected investment will be greater than both center and states combined.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
A)Only 1
B)Only 2
C)Both 1 and 2
D)Neither 1 nor 2
Ans – A
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