What is PM Gati Shakti Yojana

Launched in 2021, PM Gati Shakti Yojna is a national master of the Narendra Modi government that looks at building of infrastructure in the country in an integrated manner. It seeks to create world-class infrastructure for a modern and advanced India. It breaks silos between ministries and departments, identifies gaps and removes obstacles that come in the way of infrastructure projects in the country. It is thus a welcome departure from the previous piecemeal approach to infrastructure execution. It adopts a holistic approach towards infrastructure building to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2026-27. Based on a digital platform, it brings 16 ministries together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects. Roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infrastructure are the so-called seven engines that are getting the push from the government for development under PN Gati Shakti. A national single window system allows parties interested in building infrastructure to submit their proposal online and track its progress using the same platform. In practical terms thus, projects like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports and UDAN are under one roof now on the digital platform. Economic zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters and agri zones are also being covered to improve connectivity and make Indian businesses more competitive. PM Gati Shakti will also leverage technology including spatial planning tools with ISRO imagery.

Vision of PM Gati Shakti Yojana

The PM Gati Shakti Yojana aims to create world-class infrastructure in the country. The plan has been conceptualized keeping in mind the target of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2026-27. That mark will also make it the world’s third-largest economy, behind just the US and China. It aims to develop a multi modal network with comprehensive support for planning, financing, innovation and technology.

Six pillars of PM Gati Shakti Yojana

Comprehensiveness

It covers all the current and planned initiatives of various ministries and departments under one centralized portal. Every department now has the visibility and knowledge of each other's activities, which enables critical inputs data in planning and execution of projects in a comprehensive manner.

Prioritization

Through this, armed with close to real time and better information, different departments will be able to prioritize their projects through cross-sectoral interactions

Optimization

The National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after identification of critical gaps. For the transportation of the goods from one place to another, the plan will help in selecting the most optimum route in terms of time and cost.

Synchronization

There used to be lack of coordination in planning and implementation between individual ministries and departments often as they worked in silos. PM Gati Shakti helps in synchronizing the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination of work between them.

Analytical

The plan provides the entire data at one place with GIS-based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility for the agency executing the project. PM Gati Shakti also leverages technology including spatial planning tools with ISRO imagery developed by Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics.

Dynamic

All ministries and departments are now be able to visualize, review and monitor the progress of projects going on in various sectors at the same time, through the GIS platform. This is because the satellite imagery gives actual on-ground progress at regular intervals and progress of the projects is uploaded regularly on the portal. It helps in identifying the vital interventions for enhancing and updating the master plan.

How does it work?

A digital platform has been set up. It acts as a national single window system for parties to apply for projects under various ministries. The status of the applications and the projects can be tracked on a near real-time basis. The single window system has been entrusted with the task of onboarding critical approvals and NOCs from nine ministries for end-to-end application and subsequent approval. The existence of a unified platform allows ministries to coordinate amongst themselves, have a better grasp of the obstacles and thus resolve them soonest. Based on the information shared by the ministries, more than 427 approvals and no-objection certificates (NOCs) have been mapped onto a ‘Know Your Approvals’ module for applicants to understand the list of approvals that they need for their infrastructure projects under PM Gati Shakti.

What are the advantages of PM Gati Shakti?

• It reduces time and cost needed to get approvals from various ministries and departments. It speeds up approvals for projects.
• It leads to near real-time tracking of the application. It leads to quick resolution of obstacles facing the project because of better coordination among various ministries and departments. This helps the government as well as the agency executing the project.
• It avoids disputes as thorny issues are resolved in time which prevents unnecessary litigation.
• It looks at infrastructure building as a complete and holistic matter, avoiding a piecemeal approach. This helps in adoption of the best solution to resolve any infrastructure issue, avoids disjointed efforts and duplication besides leading to optimal utilization of resources. 

Union Budget 2024 - PM Gati Shakti Yojana Updates

In the Interim Budget that the Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on February 3, construction of three new major economic railway corridors was proposed. These are (1) energy, mineral and cement corridors, (2) port connectivity corridors, and (3) high traffic density corridors. The projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost.

The resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help in improving operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speed for passengers. Together with dedicated freight corridors, these three economic corridor programmes will accelerate the country’s GDP growth and reduce logistic costs.

Not mentioned as such separately or given the name of Gati Shakti, the Finance Minister allocated Rs. 11.11 trillion as capital budget expenditure for the new financial year starting April 1. This is an 11.1% jump from last year and accounts for 3.4% of the GDP.