Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) envisages the creation of a system for inter-connected and multimodal transportation networks leading to integrated economic and infrastructure development.
According to reports, 76 key infrastructure projects worth about Rs 5.14 lakh crores of different ministries have been evaluated under this initiative in the last one year.
These projects have been recommended by the Network Planning Group (NPG) constituted under the PM Gati Shakti initiative launched in October 2021, reported The Economic Times in mid-April. All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investments of over Rs 500 crore, are routed through NPG.
New energy to infra
In his post-Budget webinar, the PM emphasised that this year’s Budget will give new energy to infrastructure. He said that India’s Capital Expenditure has increased five times compared to 2013-14.
He informed that the average construction of National Highways has nearly doubled compared to what it was before 2014. Similarly, only 600 route km of railway track was electrified per year before 2014 which is now reaching 4,000 km per year. He further added that the capacity of airports and seaports has doubled as well.
He highlighted that under the Plan, 100 critical infrastructure gap projects have been prioritised for development in FY 2023-24 and Rs 75,000 crore has been allocated for the same. Similarly, with multimodal infrastructure development, India’s logistics cost will reduce further and improve the ease-of-living and easeof-doing-business in the country.
Multi-modal connectivity
The NMP aims at facilitating development of multi-modal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones including ports and shipping sector. Altogether, 101 projects in respect of ports and shipping have been identified with Rs. 60,872 crores for implementation. Out of these, 13 projects worth Rs. 4,423 crores have already been completed.
According to Union Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh, under this Plan, 27,000 circuit km of transmission lines will be added at an investment of Rs. 75,000 crore by 2024-25. The power transmission network is planned to be expanded from 4,25,500 circuit km (as on May 31, 2020) to 4,54,200 circuit km by 2024-25. This is an addition of nearly 28,700 circuit km.
