Around 228 infrastructure projects meeting the objectives and principles for the PM Gati Shakti Masterplan (NMP) and involving investments of more than Rs 15.88 lakh crore have been approved in the previous three years, a senior official said on Wednesday.

“The maximum number of projects recommended by the group are related to roads (108), followed by railways (85), 12 each from urban development and the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, and four from the oil and gas ministry,” additional secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Rajeev Singh Thakur said.

All projects of over Rs 500 crore are appraised by the Network Planning Group (NPG) that has been set up for this purpose, and is headed by the additional secretary in the DPIIT.  Following the clearance from the NPG, projects move for approval by the public investment board, expenditure finance committee or any other competent authority. Forty-four central ministries, and 36 states and Union Territories (UTs) have been included on the platform.

For efficient planning at the district level, a master plan has been launched in 27 aspirational districts, one each in all the states.

“There have been discussions for some time for opening up the GatiShakti portal for the private sector. The timeline is difficult to tell, but we are moving in that direction…” Thakur said.

To complement the Gati Shakti NMP, the government came out with a National Logistics Policy in 2022. After the Centre’s move, 26 states and UTs have approved their logistics policies and nine states have given the industry status to the sector. This will help get land on a priority basis, faster clearances and even cheaper finance from state industrial finance corporations, Thakur said.

Under the logistics policy, the sectoral plan for efficiency has been created for the coal and cement sectors, and now the plan is to design the same for steel and foodgrains, Thakur said. The sectoral plan draws up the map for efficient movement of products from the source of production to consumption sectors, he said.

The PM GatiShakti NMP, which aims at creating a seamless and efficient multimodal transportation network, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 13, 2021. It started with eight infrastructure ministries, and in 2023, it was extended to 16 social ministries. It has now been extended to include 15 economic and five other ministries.