81 high-impact infrastructure projects make it to Gati Shakti list

Road projects top the pecking order, states to upload data by March-end

The industry department has identified 81 high-impact projects under various infrastructure ministries for the government’s Gati Shakti initiative. These projects will be closely monitored in 2022-23, according to officials.   

Major industrial corridors of National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC), key expressways and highways, such as 1,257-km Amritsar-Jamnagar expressway, 1,350-km Delhi-Mumbai expressway, and 210-km Delhi-Saharanpur-Dehradun expressway, and the world’s largest broadband project BharatNet will be among the government’s priority projects, two officials told Business Standard.

Of the 81 high-impact projects that have been identified, 50 per cent belong to the ministry of road transport and highways, followed by others. ‘’These projects have been tagged under PM Gati Shakti and are being closely monitored,” said one of the officials cited above.

The development assumes significance, with the government pinning Gati Shakti as one of its four priorities for the next financial year, as laid out in the Union Budget 2022-23. Speedy implementation of infrastructure projects is expected to have a multiplier effect by creating demand and jobs, thereby accelerating growth.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2021, Gati Shakti -- a digital portal -- is currently in a test phase; officials said a full-fledged launch can be expected by the end of this month. An exercise is being conducted to integrate the existing portal and data of key infrastructure ministries, as well as state governments. The Union Budget 2022-23 has made a provision of assistance worth Rs 1 trillion for states so that state governments can use this amount on multimodal infrastructure.

“We are also developing online tools for obtaining time-consuming clearances pertaining to environment and coastal regulation zones (CRZ). The idea is to do away with manual application and digitise the entire process on the (Gati Shakti) portal for faster implementation of projects. This is one of our priorities,” another official said.

“Identification of critical gaps (fixing connectivity issues) in infrastructure projects is also important from the logistics point of view. Besides, we are focusing on handholding and training of states and ministries so that they are able to use Gati Shakti (national master plan for multimodal connectivity),” the official said, adding that from now, big infrastructure projects cannot be implemented without using the portal and identifying the connectivity and other challenges in projects.

A network planning group, comprising officials from various ministries, has also been set up to ensure that projects are designed using the master plan. “Projects will get approval from the Cabinet only if it is planned and implemented through the master plan,” the official added.

Last week, the prime minister said in the Gati Shakti National Master Plan, more than 400 data layers are available with information about forest land and available industrial estate. “Because of this, it will be possible to get project alignment and various types of clearances at the DPR (detailed project report) stage itself. This will also help reduce compliance burden”, he had said. He called upon the private sector to use it more and more for their planning and all important information.

Most central government departments have already started using the digital portal. The Centre is also coordinating with state governments, hand-holding them to integrate state-wise data. Among states, Gujarat is already on board.