PM GatiShakti aids in planning 8,890 km of roads, 27,000 km rail lines in two years
NEW DELHI : India has planned around 8,890 kilometres of roads, 27,000 km of railway tracks and 920 km of petroleum and natural gas pipelines based on the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP), two years after it was launched.
The platform has led to a sharp reduction in time taken by the road transport and highways ministry to prepare the detailed project report (DPR). The DPR preparation time is reduced to about 15 days from six months.
“In two years since its launch, PM GatiShakti has seen onboarding of central ministries and all states and UTs (Union Territories). Usage across infrastructure ministries and many states has showcased the strong benefits the PM GatiShakti principles are delivering,” said Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary, Logistics, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
Similarly, the petroleum and natural gas ministry’s Electronic Detailed Report Survey (e-DRS) tool generates DRS reports digitally in 24 hours, compared with six to nine months taken earlier when it was done manually without using the NMP.
PM GatiShakti was rolled out in 2021 for next-generation infrastructure development, facilitating ease of living and ease of doing business and reducing logistics costs. All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investment of more than Rs 500 crore, are routed through the Network Planning Group (NPG) constituted under the PM GatiShakti initiative.
Dawra said PM GatiShakti is emerging as a tool for economic and social planning across the country, with potential to become a global tool for planning.
As per an analysis done by the DPIIT, the number of final location surveys – to construct railway lines – done by the railways ministry increased to 449 in 2021-22 from 57 in 2020-21.
In the past two years, the NPG assessed 115 projects with a total project cost of Rs 11.7 lakh crore. These included 50 projects of the road ministry, 45 of the railways ministry, eight of housing and urban affairs ministry, and four of petroleum and natural gas ministry.
As per the analysis, 22 social sector ministries have onboarded the PM GatiShakti with more than 200 data layers mapped on NMP, including primary healthcare facilities, post office, hostels, colleges and particularly vulnerable tribal groups.
To institutionalise training and capacity building, 25 Central Training Institutes and 30 State Administrative Training Institutes have onboarded the national planning portal.
The Department of School Education and Literacy has mapped about 1.47 million schools and 26,000 Atal Thinking Lab Schools on NMP platform, according to the analysis.