PM Gati Shakti to transform infrastructure & logistics: Hardeep Sigh Puri

The PM Gati Shakti will transform India's infrastructure and logistics so that it can compete with the leading economies of the world, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Sigh Puri said here on Monday.

Addressing the North East Zonal conference for PM Gati Shakti, the Union Minister said that the transformation can be achieved through integrating major projects of petroleum, railways, highways and other utilities through master plans.

"There will be synergy between multimodal transportation, logistics and supply chain...a unified vision for accelerated and efficient execution of projects", the minister said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pointed out that the logistic costs can be as high as 13 to 14 per cent but this can be brought down to six to seven per cent which will help Indian manufacturers to match with export hubs like China and Taiwan, he said.

The PM Gati Shakti is a remarkable initiative which is trying to achieve a paradigm shift and design of future infrastructural development with connectivity being looked at in a multimodal setting through the programme, he added.

Puri said that he was happy that his ministry was the coordinating agency for this meeting which was aimed to integrate infrastructural planning and development along with availability of cleaner affordable fuel.

"Our future lies in the need to increase production and exploration of both crude and gas and this is the greatest service we can do to our economy, which was regrettably neglected in the past", the minister said.

It is the intention of the government to increase exploration of both crude and gas from 25,000 square km to 50,000 sq km and the production will increase significantly during the next four years, he added.

"We are a growing economy with a growth rate of 9.2 per cent but our per capita consumption of energy is only one-third of the global average and we have to reduce our dependence on imports which can be done only by increased production and exploration", the Union Minister said.

The state governments are also collaborating to take the PM Gati Shakti forward and this will transform India's infrastructure and logistics to compete with the world's leading economies, Puri said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already announced in the budget that an amount of Rs 20,000 crore would be released during the 2022-23 fiscal for PM Gati Shakti while capital expenditure will also go up from Rs five lakh crore to seven lakh crore.

"The state governments will also receive an amount and so they should also plan projects that can be implemented over the next five years. The plans will, however, be integrated and the resources will be pooled", he added.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state government was already on board the programme and had set up an empowered committee with the Chief Secretary as its Chairman while the secretaries of the different departments were its members.

The state government has also set up a Network Planning Group, comprising of senior officers from different departments, dealing with planning and networking for infrastructure development projects while a technical support unit has also been set up to develop the master plan.

The chief minister said that a capacity building and training programme has been initiated for officials to ensure that initiatives under PM Gati Shakti are translated into tangible actions.

Sarma also urged the Union Minister to allocate some shares of Oil India Limited (OIL) to the state government which will lead people to realise that the oil company was theirs and help in its smooth functioning.

Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli said that the North East is a pioneer in the oil and gas sector and the PM Gati Shakti will lead to both employment opportunities and development.

The master plan will help in removing the existing bottlenecks, strengthen the policies and make the states more aware and connect them with the programme, Teli added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed a post budget webinar on vision of PM Gati Shakti-National Master Plan for Multi Modal connectivity earlier on Monday.