‘Foundation of India for next 25 years’: Modi unveils Gati Shakti national master plan for infrastructure

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday unveiled the master plan for multi-modal connectivity to boost infrastructure, and to create jobs in the country. The masterplan brings about coordination between different departments, and breaks silos so that transportation needs are met in a holistic manner. “With the resolve of Atmanirbhar Bharat, the foundation of India for the next 25 years is being laid. PM Gati Shakti national master plan will give impetus (Gati Shakti) to 21st century India,” the prime minister said.

The PM Gati Shakti, through multi-modal connectivity, will provide integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services from one mode of transport to another. It will provide the public and business community information on upcoming connectivity projects and industrial areas so as to enable the investors to plan their businesses at suitable locations.

Addressing the gathering, the prime minister noted that on the auspicious day of Ashtami, the day of worshiping Shakti, the speed of nation’s progress is also getting new Shakti. He stressed that the people of India, Indian industry, Indian business, Indian manufacturers, Indian farmers are at the centre of this great campaign of Gati Shakti. It will give new energy to the present and future generations of India to build the India of the 21st century and will remove the obstacles in their path.

“Over the years, the signage ‘work in progress’ became the symbol of lack of trust. The progress requires speed, eagerness and collective efforts. Today’s, 21st century India, he said, is leaving behind old systems and practices. We have not only developed a work culture of completing the projects within the stipulated time frame but efforts are now being made to complete the projects ahead of time,” he added.

The prime minister lamented the fact that the subject of infrastructure in our country has not been a priority for most political parties. This is not even visible in their manifesto, he said. “Now the situation has come that some political parties have started criticising the construction of necessary infrastructure for the country,” he said.

Modi said that due to the wide gap between macro planning and micro implementation, problems of lack of coordination, lack of advance information, and thinking and working in silos are leading to hampered construction and wastage of budget. PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan will address this as working on the basis of the master plan will lead to optimum utilisation of resources.

The PM said when he took over in 2014, several hundred projects were struck. He put all projects on a single platform and tried to remove hurdles. He expressed satisfaction that now the focus is on avoiding delays due to lack of coordination. “Now with the whole of government approach, the collective power of the government is being channelled into fulfilling the schemes. Because of this, many unfinished projects are being completed for decades now,” he said.

Talking about infrastructure, PM said that first interstate natural gas pipeline in India was commissioned in 1987. After this, till 2014, in 27 years, a 15,000km-long natural gas pipeline was built. Today, work is going on for a more than 16,000km long gas pipeline across the country. He added that this work is targeted to be completed in the next 5-6 years.

The prime minister said in the five years before 2014, only 1,900km of railway lines underwent doubling. In the last seven years, more than 9,000km of railway lines have been doubled. In the five years before 2014, only 3,000 km of railways were electrified. In the last seven years, more than 24,000km of railway tracks have been electrified, Modi informed. He said before 2014, the metro rail was running on only about 250km of track. Today the metro has been expanded up to 70km and work is going on in the 1,000km new metro route. In the five years before 2014, only 60 panchayats could be connected with optical fibre. In the last seven years, we have connected more than 1.5 lakh gram panchayats with optical fibre, he said.

“In 2014, there were only two Mega Food Parks in the country. Today 19 Mega Food Parks are functioning in the country. Now the target is to take their number to more than 40. There were just five waterways in 2014, today India has 13 functional waterways. Turnaround time of the vessels at the ports has come down to 27 hours from 41 hours in 2014. The country has realised the pledge of One Nation One Grid. Today India has 4.25 lakh circuit kilometre power transmission lines compared to 3 lakh circuit kilometers in 2014,” he said.

PM Gati Shakti will address the past issues through institutionalising holistic planning for stakeholders for major infrastructure projects. Instead of planning & designing separately in silos, the projects will be designed and executed with a common vision. It will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and state governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc. Economic zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri zones will be covered to improve connectivity and make Indian businesses more competitive. It will also leverage technology extensively including spatial planning tools with ISRO imagery developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics).