PM GATI SHAKTI

ABSTRACT:
The first initiative was invention of the wheel which set in motion the necessity of travelable paths.
Since then, the role of infrastructure has expanded from canals to modern capital structures such as railways,
roads etc. Depending on the necessities of the region in India since independence, infrastructure development
has moved on a consistent growth curve building the assets required by the nation across sectors such as
transportation, housing, commercial development, telecom and most recently, sanitation.
The multiplier effects of infrastructure in the economy cannot be realized if it operates in silos.
Thus, in 2019, Government of India adopted a forward-looking programmatic approach towards infrastructure
coordination. The National Infrastructure Pipeline was born with a projected investment of around Rs111 lakh
Crore for FY 2020-25 for developing a comprehensive view of infrastructure development in the country,
monitoring its progress at the highest levels in the government for timely completion, and enabling a pipeline
view for investors for them to plan infrastructure investments.

INTRODUCTION
This story of infrastructure has seen many successes. While roads, railways, and waterways have seen
unprecedented expansion in the last eight years, ports and airports have been substantially upgraded. With the
help of infrastructure, the country move from unimodal to multimodal transportation, providing a window of
opportunity to the private sector to invest and reinvest in these assets, which has already been facilitated by the
policy of asset monetization. Extending infrastructural facilities is only part of the story; modernization is the
other important principle that has been attempted with verve and achieved with commendable speed. My
presentation will cover answers of following questions:
 What is PM Gati Shakti Approach?
 The main objectives of PM Gati Shakti.
 What are the presumed outcomes of PM Gati Shakti
 How PM Gati Shakti will help in various issues faced by Indian infrastructure?
 How PM Gati Shakti will be beneficial for the common man?
 How PM Gati Shakti is facilitating ease of doing business?
 How PM Gati Shakti is improving logistic efficiency?
 What digitization efforts are being undertaken under PM Gati Shakti?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Secondary sources for data collection has been used.
 Government publications referred.
 Earlier research on the subject referred.
 PM Gati Shakti was launched by our hon’ble PM on 13th Oct 2021 for providing multimodal
connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones.
 Launch of PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for the multi-model connectivity has helped to
improve global competitiveness, promote manufacturing and modernize infrastructure in the country.
 PM Gati Shakti targets to cut logistic costs, increase cargo handling capacity and reduce the
turnaround time.
 The master plan is focusing more on ending inter-ministerial silos.
 In simple words, the PM Gati Shakti master plan will bring maximum coordination and minimise
delays between the government stakeholders and project will be designed and executed with a
common vision
 This plan provides comprehensive database of the onging and future projects of various ministries
ROLE OF CENTRAL MINISTRIES, STATES AND DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION
 The primary role of the central ministries is to break the silos and start working in co-ordination
with each other under the umbrella of PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multimodal
connectivity. All the existing/planned initiatives/schemes of the various ministries/ departments
like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, Inland waterways, Dry/land ports, UDAN have been integrated as
part of PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan.
 The State Governments have large infrastructure responsibilities spread across departments and
agencies.
 The district administration will help in ground-level implementation of the planned
initiatives/projects under PM Gati Shakti including expediting the district level approval processes.
It is essential that required layers of data are mapped on GIS platform. Its visualization and utility
by district administration will help in attaining the objective. It will also help in identifying district
level projects which will complement the initiatives/projects of the central ministries/departments
and state governments.
 To achieve its mandate to develop and integrated cost-effective, reliable, sustainable and digitally
enabled logistics ecosystem in the country in coordination with the respective line
ministries/departments, the role of logistics division will be as under.
 Further develop and monitor the national master plan (NMP) in coordination with the respective
line ministries.
 Operationalize the network planning group (NPG) & the technical support unit (TSU).
 Handhold all stakeholders and provide capacity building on the use of the monitoring tools for
updating and sharing data.
 Identify projects which are vital or critical from multimodal connectivity point of view through
network planning group (NPG);
 Coordinate for upgradation of the NMP portal from time to time and use the monitoring tools for
review by the EGOs, NPG and other stakeholders.
 This plan is achieving enhanced efficiency day by day through comprehensiveness.
 One centralized portal has provided visibility to all stakeholders. Now each and every department
can see each other’s activities by providing critical data while planning.
 Eg. Railway is one of the important infrastructures for agriculture sector. Kisan rail is a step to
enable farmers to utilize the vast railway network to gain access to distant, bigger and more
lucrative markets. Access to such markets will enable farmers to sell their produce at a better price
which will go a long way in fulfilling government’s vision of doubling farmers’ income.
 Now, the agency of railways has the visibility of the upcoming projects of other departments like
irrigation, economic zones, industrial clusters, so the implementation agency of railway can use the
data of other departments while planning their own projects.
 PM GATI SHAKTI is enabling different departments to prioritize their projects through cross
sectoral interactions. Example is Shendra and Bidkin economic zones of the Maharashtra Industrial
Development Corporation (MIDC) near Aurangabad getting developed as a smart city project. The
distance between the two nodes is approximately 40 kms.
 For providing better connectivity between these two zones better coordination was important
between NHAI and MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation). Under PM
GATISHAKTI the work on connecting these two nodes has been taken on priority after extensive
coordination between NHAI and MIDC.
 Second example is long delayed gas pipeline project which will benefit three southern states
 One was the Kochi-Koottanad-Bengaluru-Mangaluru pipeline Phase-2 project which will move
the liquified natural gas from the Kochi LNG terminal and transport and distribute the degasified LNG
to consumers in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The vital project will be connecting
these three southern states with the national gas grid of GAIL.
 However, this project, which was sanctioned in 2007 and was scheduled to be completed in 2012,
has been now delayed till 2025.
 The main problem in the project remains in the state of Tamil Nadu which has to submit a revised
pipeline route and land acquisition plus forest clearances are pending. This raised the concern of
the prime minister as the project is not only expected to meet the energy needs of domestic but also
industrial and transport sectors. The prime minister is said to have asked the cabinet secretary to
help resolve the issues between the Tamil Nadu government and the ministry of petroleum and
natural gas."
 Industrial corridors projects are set for development with 30 projects to be developed by 2024-25.
In 2021, the Asian development bank approved a $250 million loan to support India’s national
industrial corridor development program. Against this backdrop constituting the resolution to
strengthening and spreading industrial corridors in the country, it is pertinent to first understand
what industrial corridors are and what they bring to the table.
 This prioritization will help industries of these zones to get better connectivity for sourcing the
raw material and transportation of their final products.
 PM Gatishakti is helping in optimization of different projects by minimizing the logistic cost by
identifying critical gaps.
 For example, if coal has to be transported from Jabalpur to Mundra port, government can minimize
the logistic cost by identifying the best route through this plan. This plan will also help the rail and
road ministries to identify the critical routes for modification and expansion.
 It provides synchronization between various departments in a holistic manner for timely completion
of all the projects. Large-scale absence of coordination and collaboration among agencies has been
a major challenge to time bound infrastructure project implementation in india.”
 "NHAI constructs the roads till district headquarters, thereafter; it is constructed by state PWD or by
rural development department to the habitations and to the border areas by BRO. This plan will
help in synchronizing the activities of each department in a holistic manner by ensuring
coordination of work between them.
 "Factors responsible for time lags are underestimation of original project cost, spiraling land
acquisition cost, delays in environment, forest and wildlife clearances and industrial licensing
permission, road crossing of pipelines/transmission lines, shifting of utilities, delays in the tie-up
of project financing, delays in finalisation of detailed engineering, etc.
 We can take the example of north eastern region. "the northeast region of India, comprising eight
states, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and
Tripura, share almost 12,000 kilometers of international border with Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Myanmar, Nepal and Tibet, and is connected with the rest of India by a narrow chicken-neck,
having a width of approximately 20 kilometers, which is popularly known as the Siliguri corridor
in West Bengal.
 Estimates show that the northeast region produces significant marketable surplus in a large number
of perishable commodities, including banana, pineapple, orange and tomato."
 "Contrary to this, as per a NITI (National Institute for Transforming India) Aayog report titled
“India – three-year action agenda 2017-18 to 2019-20”, 95 percent of India’s exports to
neighbouring states of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar are from regions other than northeast
India.”
 Different types of roads are being implemented by multiple agencies like PWD, BRO, NHIDCL,
PMGSY in north eastern region. Therefore synchronized effort was necessary for these types of
projects in India.
 "As a result of the Gati Shakti, the delayed approach to project implementation in northeast India
is undergoing a tectonic shift. This is because most of these projects under
implementation, including those under Bharatmala Pariyojana, will now be part of an
institutional framework under the PM Gati Shakti master plan.
 "The 49th network planning group (NPG) meeting of PM GATISHAKTI National Master Plan
(NMP) has recommended a roadways project in Tripura.
 "The road section of Khowai-Teliamura-Harina with a total length of 134.9 km was considered for
its improvement and widening to two lanes with a paved shoulder of NH-208 in Tripura. It is a
brownfield project with a total cost of Rs 2,486 crore.
 The project is planned with a multimodal connectivity approach of PM GATISHAKTI;
connectivity to industrial clusters and a new special economic zone namely Paschim Jalefa;
efficient freight movement; optimized alignment and logistical efficiency."
 The project road that passes through Khowai, Gomati, and South Tripura districts connecting
places like Khowai, Teliamura, Twidu, Amarpur, Karbook, and Harina in Tripura. It will also not
only enhance interstate connectivity between Assam and Tripura but also give a boost to the
economic and industrial activities in Tripura."
  "Development in tribal area: project enhanced connectivity to three tribal districts- Khowai district,
Gomati district, and south Tripura district. The project is on engineering procurement &
construction (EPC) basis under japan international cooperation agency (JICA) official
development assistance (ODA) loan.
 The principles of PM GATISHAKTI national master plan have been adopted during the planning
of the road alignment. Alignment of the road is superimposed with data layers available on national
master plan portal like railway lines, forests, power lines, water bodies, etc.
 The plan will provide the public and business community information regarding the upcoming
connectivity projects, other business hubs, industrial areas and surrounding environment. This will
enable the investors to plan their businesses at suitable locations leading to enhanced synergies.

PM GATI SHAKTI AND EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

o The multi-modal connectivity will provide seamless movement of people, goods and services
from one mode of transport to another. National master plan will facilitate the last mile
connectivity of the infrastructure so that road, rail, power, optic fiber cable, gas pipeline etc
are available to the people.
o The approach is driven by seven engines, namely,
 Roads
 Railways
 Airports
 Ports
 Mass Transport
 Waterways
 Logistics infrastructure
 The scope of PM GATISHAKTI National Master Plan will encompass the
seven engines for an Economic transformation, Seamless multimodal
connectivity and Logistics Efficiency

LOGISTICS EFFICIENCY
 We can see the effect of PM Gati Shakti on seven engines of economic growth through their
performance in two years
 India has the second largest road network in the world of about 63.32 lakh km. this comprises
national highways, expressways, state highways, major district roads, other district roads and
village roads as under:
 "The ministry of road transport and highways (MORTH) has made significant progress under the
“PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP)”, aimed at improving multi-modal connectivity and
last mile connectivity across the country."
 "As part of the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, the ministry plans to develop 22 greenfield
expressways, 23 other key infrastructure projects & other highway projects and 35 multi-modal
logistics parks (MMLPS), as part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana and other schemes of the ministry.
some of the major expressways and corridors, which are under construction stage are Delhi –
Mumbai expressway, Ahmedabad-Dholera expressway, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway,
Bengaluru-Chennai expressway, Ambala-Kotputli expressway, Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar
Expressway, Raipur-Vzg expressway, Hyderabad-Vzg expressway, Chennai-Salem expressway
and Chittor-Thatchur expressway."
 "Some of the major key infrastructure projects, which are under construction stage include
construction of Zojila tunnel (Ladakh), roads to connect Krishnapatnam port (Andhra Pradesh), a
major bridge over middle strait creek (Andaman & Nicobar islands), 2-laning of Lalpul-Manmao
changing road (Arunachal Pradesh), 6-lane bridge over Ganga Bridge at Phaphamau (UP) and 4-
lane bridge over Brahmaputra between Dhubri-Phulbari (Meghalaya)."
 "The ministry, through its implementing agencies NHAI/NHLML and NHIDCL, has kept pace
with the work of implementing the 35 MMLP projects identified for development under the
Bharatmala Pariyojana phase i. the MMLP at Jogighopa, Assam, which is being developed in
partnership with the Assam government as equity stakeholder in the project SPV, is already under
construction.
RAILWAY

 "When Gati Shakti fostered synergy and collaboration across ministries and departments; it
became evident that the Indian railways stood to gain significantly,
 "Consider railway lines as an example. Between 2009 and 2014, railway lines were being laid at
an average pace of 4 km per day. This pace has now accelerated to 14 km per day. Consequently,
the fiscal year 2022-23 witnessed the completion of 5,423 km, marking an all-time high.”
 The ripple effect extends beyond accelerated construction rates to cover all facets of the Indian
railways – from initiation and approval of projects to their completion.
 “Lack of coordination has been a significant hurdle, leading to delays in railway projects,” said
Vijay Dutt, former additional member of the railways. This issue needed to be resolved if railways
is to amplify its freight contribution from 28 per cent to 45 per cent by 2030, he added.
 Exclusive data accessed by business standard shows that there has been an increase in yard
remodeling and non- interlocking works (61 per cent in 1,061 stations), automatic signaling (143
per cent covering 530 route km) and railway electrification (3 per cent, clocking record numbers
of 6,565 route km) in the last financial year.
 Improved coordination has led to an uptick in project sanctioning, besides reducing the associated
timelines. The final location survey exhibits a 688 per cent increase, project sanctioning reflects an
871 per cent surge, and traffic facility works observe a 61 per cent rise. the cumulative result is
reflected in the highest-ever numbers of approved projects in 2022-23, with 449 for final location
surveys, 68 for project sanctioning, and 132 for traffic facility works.
 This effort has also translated into heightened project commissioning. new lines, doubling and
gauge conversion led to an increase of over 80 per cent, from 2,910 km in 2021-22 to 5,243 km in
2022-23. This contributed to enhancing passenger amenities and related infrastructure. The
construction of ramps reflects a 57 per cent increase, while the development of platforms and foot
over bridges also saw growth.
Cargo
Airport

Gas pipeline
Power transmission network

Renewable energy
Cargo Handling at Ports

Gram panchayat connectivity

PROBLEMS IN THE WAY OF PM GATISHAKTI

 Wasteful expenditure being incurred by different departments
 It has been observed many a times that once a road is constructed, some of the other agencies dig up
the constructed road again for various activities .
 PM Gatishakti tends to resolve these issues by establishing synergies among different departments
duringplanning
INSUFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF INSTALLED CAPACITY.
 It has been often observed many a times that due to inefficient planning, several projects despite their
timely completion are not running up to their optimum capacity and are being under-utilized resulting
in loss of revenue and resources.
 "Gatishakti not only aims at aligning the timelines of various projects through efficient planning, but
also aims at taking initiatives even after completion of the project to overcome the past inefficiencies
thereby minimizing the losses.
 "One such example is lng terminal which was commissioned in 2013-14 but because of lack of integrated
planning, pipeline connectivity to various demand centers in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with
LNG terminal could not be completed due to ROU acquisition issues in the states. The pipelines were
to be laid at about the same time. Initially only 41 km pipeline was supplying gas to region around
Kochi city only and terminal capacity was underutilized. Kochi Mangalore pipeline section was
commissioned in November, 2020. With the laying of pipeline connectivity to demand centers, the
utilization has improved
 "As has been demonstrated by the ministry of shipping through several interventions, involving
upgradation of infrastructure for movement of goods from the port by improving the last mile
connectivity in addition to various policy interventions like direct port delivery (DPD) which
facilitates the delivery of the container directly from the terminal without being taken to container
freight stations (CFS). This has ensured that the customer can avail the direct delivery thus, saving the
overall logistics cost of Rs 8,000-20,000, as well as saving time by 4-5 days"
 Delay of standardization: previous practice has always been to design each and every part of
infrastructure as if it is a unique construction. such as each railway over bridge (ROB) is designed as
a separate project by the MORTH which later requires approval by the ministry of railways (MOR).
Most of the time these designs are similar but approval process is stretched to several years causing
huge inconvenience to general public and loss to the exchequer.
 Gatishakti aims at resolving this issue by promoting standardization of the designs so that the approval
could be completed in a very short span of time.
 As has been successfully demonstrated by ministry of railways (MOR) by implementing the rail road
crossing general alignment drawing approval system, an online all-in-one approval portal wherein the
list of drawings for rail road crossings are available along with guidelines for planning of road over
bridges. This has reduced the time from 6 months to 2-3 months in getting relevant approvals from the
MOR."

CONCLUSION.
PM Gati Shakti master plan is a big step of government of India and it is a long impending reform in the
direction of infrastructure development in India after the national infrastructure pipeline, and the national
monetization pipeline.It will go a long way in making our local manufacturers globally competitive

BIBLIOGRAPHY
o https://www.mbauniverse.com/group-discussion/topic/current-affairs/gati-shakti-master-plan
o http://www.indianrailways.gov.in
o http://www.business-standard.com
o cuts.citee.org
o infra.com;economic times
o pmgatishakti.gov.in
o The hindu news paper
o bisag-n.gov.in
o niti ayog