The PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan (NMP) has completed an evaluation of 76 central government key infrastructure projects related to railways, roads and transport, etc. worth Rs 5.14 lakh crore over the past year leading to cost savings, providing the shortest connectivity and minimising intersections with forest cover, a top official of the Commerce Ministry said.
PM Gati Shakti – National Mission Plan, launched on October 13, 2021, is a geographic information system-enabled platform that integrates the data on infrastructure like roads, railway lines, ports, inland waterways, telecom lines and power lines onto a single portal. The NMP platform enables integrated planning for multimodal logistics and supports data-based decision-making.
“We held four meetings to identify the pain points. The fifth meeting on port-related connectivity issues will be held with chairmen of all ports soon,” Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary at Commerce Ministry said in a media briefing.
“So far 22 states have integrated their land records with Gati Shakti – NMP. Also, 14 social sectors ministries/departments have been boarded onto the NMP platform and are in advanced stages of integration to utilise the PM Gatishakti mechanism,” she said.
Using the NMP, 156 infrastructure gaps relating to first and last-mile connectivity issues of major sectors of the economy, such as coal, steel, fertiliser, ports, food and public distribution have been identified by concerned ministries in coordination with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
An amount of Rs 75,000 crore (including Rs 15,000 crore from private sources) for 100 critical transport infrastructure projects identified for first and last-mile connectivity has been allocated in Union Budget 2023.
The entire 5G rollout by the Telecom Ministry is taking place using the Gatishakti NMP.
“The availability of existing telecom infrastructure across states among other data layers has helped in expeditious planning of the 5G network. This will enable faster rollout of the network and early availability of 5G services,” Dawra said.
The use of NMP has resulted in cost savings for every project due to better planning based on data layers.
A ‘call before u dig’ mobile application has been developed on the Gatishakti NMP that aims to prevent damage to underlying assets like optical fibre cables because of uncoordinated digging and excavation, leading to a loss of about Rs 3,000 crore every year.
The installation of the Silchar-Jiribam-Imphal natural gas pipeline in Assam-Manipur using the NMP has resulted in a lesser overall length leading to a cost reduction from Rs 1,150 crore to Rs 1,100 crore.
The India-Nepal Haldia border project under Gatishakti NMP has led to minimising intersections with the forest area and the Raniganj coal mine area.
The construction of a broad gauge double line between Sawai Madhopur-Jaipur under Gatishakti has led to total savings in freight trains of Rs 1,104.93 lakh.
The Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) launched under the national logistics policy has been integrated with 33 systems of seven ministries. ULIP enables tracking of all cargo containers, which are exported, or imported, during domestic or international waters.
“So far 76 companies have already signed non-disclosure agreements with ULIP for getting access to data sets. Fifteen more companies are likely to join soon. To date, 57 million cargo containers have been tracked in the last six years. Major industry players like Maruti Suzuki, DHL, UltraTech, TCIL, Tata Steel and Bosch have been onboarded on ULIP,” Abishek Chaudhary, Vice-President of National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation said.
