The infrastructure sector continues to serve as India’s most important contributor to the country’s overall growth and economic development. It is an essential component that makes possible an economy worth $20 trillion by the year 2040. On the other hand, there is evidence from the past to suggest that the industry as a whole has encountered a number of obstacles regarding the seamless execution of projects and their prompt completion. This has resulted in a loss of both capital and resources, in addition to a significant increase in expenditures. The lack of coordination that exists among the various functional divisions that are involved is one of the primary problems with the situation.

On the 13th of October, 2021, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi announced a national master plan, named, Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti, a digital platform that would bring together the 16 ministries for an integrated coordination, planning and implementation of the projects.The Rs.100 lakh crore project would focus on a holistic planning for stakeholders on major projects. Under this plan, infrastructure projects run by a variety of ministries and state governments, such as Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry and land ports, UDAN, and other programmes of a similar nature, will be included. In addition, a variety of economic zones will also be included, such as textile clusters, pharmaceutical corridors, fisheries clusters, agricultural zones, and other similar areas, with the goal of improving connectivity and boosting business competitiveness. The plan would also facilitate the smooth flow of people and goods, hence decreasing logistics expenses.

PM Gati Shakti rests on six major pillars which consists of:

  1. Comprehensiveness:One unified platform will be used to integrate all of the ongoing and future projects that are being developed by the various Ministries and Departments.There will be transparency in the actions that are carried out by each department, providing vital data in the process of planning and fully carrying out projects.
  2. Prioritisation: Various departments shall be able to prioritize the projects.
  3. Optimisation: Assistance for various ministries in terms of selecting the most optimum methodologies that can save both time and expenditure without compromising the quality.
  4. Synchronisation: Ensures a proper coordination between various levels of ministries.
  5. Analytical: The plan will deliver all of the data in one location, together with GIS-based spatial planning and analytical tools that have more than 200 layers.
  6.  Dynamic: With the GIS platform introduced, satellite images can be obtained that will give an update on the project progress.This will be an extremely important factor in improving and updating the master plan.

The logistics cost of the country is estimated to be between 13-14% of its GDP. For developed economies, this figure ranges from 8% to 10%. The PM Gati Shakti plan is a programme that has the capacity to get India closer to its ambitious goal of a $5 trillion GDP by 2024–2025, which the Indian government has set. Utilising IT tools and cutting-edge technology, PM Gati Shakti’s strategy will connect diverse infrastructure projects, breaking down departmental silos along the way.

 

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