PM Gati Shakti, a mega push to Manufacturing & Exports

New Delhi, Oct 13 (KNN) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the INR 100 lac crore Prime Minister Gati Shakti – a National Master plan for multi-modal connectivity and to incorporate infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments designed and executed with a common vision.

K K Kapila, President Emeritus, International Road Federation and former co-chairman, FICCI Infrastructure committee, welcoming the master plan, said, “Multi-modal connectivity was need of the day in the country and will help in improving and fast tracking of world class infrastructure for the country. Better connectivity and infra will help in bringing down logistics costs and improving exports as well as create more job opportunities and improve supply chains.”

“Coordination between various government ministries was also much needed, the PM Gati Shakti includes all the existing and planned initiatives of various ministries and departments with one centralized portal. Each and every department will now have visibility of each other’s activities providing critical data while planning and executing projects in a comprehensive manner,” he added.

Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are also upbeat about the new developments as Central agencies are mandated to procure 25% their purchases fr0m MSMEs.

“MSMEs are also important stake holders as suppliers to infrastructure projects and suffer enormously due to delays borne out of lack of coordination between various Government agencies,” commented Dinesh Singhal, Past President of FISME and Managing Director of Kanohar Electricals Ltd.

“This is resulting into a litany of commercial disputes between tender issuing agency and the suppliers,” he added.  

The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after the identification of critical gaps.

“For the transportation of the goods fr0m one place to another, the plan will help in selecting the most optimum and avoiding delays in various infra projects in the country,” said Satish Parakh, President, International Road Federation, India chapter.

It will help in synchronising the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination of work between them.

“Better infrastructure connectivity to economic zones of the country will help elevate India as a manufacturing power hub,” added Parakh.

Further, Gauba added, “Industry believes that in time to come this move will cut the logistics cost by at least 10%, which will give exporters room to be competitive in the global market. The connecting of industrial corridors with play and plug facilities and connecting it with multi-mode logistic infrastructure will be a game changer for the manufacturing and exports sector in particular, which will cut the turnaround time and save cost.”  

Aims of PM Gati Shakti (to achieve by 2024-25)

  -- 1. 11 industrial corridors and two new defence corridors in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh
  -- 2. 4G connectivity in all villages
  -- 3. Increasing renewable energy capacity to 225 GW fr0m 87.7 GW
  -- 4. Expanding the national highway network to 2 lakh km
  -- 5. Increasing cargo handling capacity of railways to 1,600 million tons fr0m 1210 million tons
  -- 6. Adding 17,000 km to gas pipeline network
  -- 7. 202 fishing clusters/harbours/landing centres and more