The Network Planning Group of the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan on Thursday approved six highway and railway projects involving an investment of Rs 14000 crore for meeting the objectives of the plan.
Of the total, three are road projects that involve an investment of Rs 8706 crore and three are railway lines that will be laid down at the cost of Rs 5374 crore. The projects are spread all over the country.
The inter-ministerial Network Planning Group meets every fortnight and appraises infra projects to ensure multimodality, synchronisation of efforts, and comprehensive development in and around the project location.
Thursday’s meeting was the 55th meeting of the group. “So far the NPG has appraised 106 projects with a total value of Rs 11 trillion, a statement by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
All infrastructure projects of over Rs 500 crore have to get an approval from NPG, which has representatives of all infrastructure ministries, to ensure that their planning confirms with the objectives of Gati Shakti Masterplan.
The approval of the NPG is required before clearance of the project by the Public Investment Board (PIB) or Department of Expenditure.
The NMP that has multiple layers of geo spatial 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.
Because all the data on existing infrastructure is available, planning a new project around it becomes easier and enables taking into account all 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 FY 22 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 6-9 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,” Special Secretary (Logistics) Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Sumita Dawra said.
She said the Gati Shakti portal has brought down the time taken for preparing a detailed project report of highways to 15 days from six months earlier.
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.