The Network Planning Group of the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan has approved 100 projects worth Rs 5.89 trillion, a senior official told FE. Of this, 40 road projects account for a total investment of Rs 3.65 trillion. In addition, 40 railway projects worth Rs 95,704 crore and eight urban development projects entailing an investment of Rs 79,016 crore have also been given the go-ahead.
The inter-ministerial Network Planning Group meets every fortnight and appraises infrastructure projects to ensure multimodality, synchronisation of efforts, and comprehensive development in and around the project location.
All infrastructure projects of over Rs 500 crore require approval from the NPG. The group comprises representatives of all infrastructure ministries to ensure that their planning conforms to the objectives of the Gati Shakti Master Plan. The approval of the NPG is required before the project is cleared by the Public Investment Board (PIB) or department of expenditure.
The maximum number of projects recommended by the NPG are from roads, railways and urban development spaces.
Till date, the ministry of road transport and highways has planned more than 1,400 km of roads and the ministry of Railways has planned over 13,000 km of track length using the National Master Plan (NMP), special secretary (logistics), department for promotion of industry and internal trade, Sumita Dawra said.
The NMP, which has multiple layers of geospatial data showing all physical and social infrastructure of an area and land records at one place, has been designed for faster planning and better design so that the impact of an investment is maximised.
Since all data on existing infrastructure are available, planning a new project around it becomes easier and enables taking into account the hurdles that may arise at the construction stage. It also enables the design of the project in a way that it has the maximum impact in an area.
The ministry of Railways has reported greater speed in final location surveys. In FY22 it completed 427 surveys as against 57 in the previous year.
“In case of detailed route survey done by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, it used to take six to nine months to prepare 46 reports manually. But now using NMP through electronic DRS, with the click of a button the reports get created, which has made the process simpler and faster,” Dawra said.
Inputs of different ministries ensure that a project is aligned with other available or planned infrastructure in the area, which it will address to get the maximum out of the proposed investment.
The Gati Shakti Master Plan was launched in 2021 for coordinated planning and execution of infrastructure projects so that each project works seamlessly with and enhances the impact of other planning for an area be it in industrial corridors, roads, railways, ports, telecom, urban development projects, petroleum pipelines, renewable energy and social sector.