Centre nudges state govts to speed up PM GatiShakti scheme adoption

After the adoption of the Prime Minister’s GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) by all key central infrastructure ministries and departments, the industry department is now nudging state governments to weave it into their infrastructure projects.

This was stated on Monday by Sumit Dawra, special secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Apart from planning infrastructure projects, states have been asked to identify ‘critical infrastructure gaps’.

The DPIIT has also been conducting workshops to promote wide adoption of PM GatiShakti. As of now, four regional workshops have been conducted with 30 states and Union Territories (UTs). The fifth workshop will be held in Varanasi from April 11 to April 12. 

“The focus in workshops has been on demonstrating the adoption of PM GatiShati NMP. Special emphasis has been given to maintaining data quality and ensuring multimodal connectivity to economic clusters. The focus is also on ensuring access to schools, primary health centres, besides creating an efficient logistics ecosystem in the country,” Dawra told Business Standard.

The GatiShakti NMP was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi one-and-a-half years ago. The masterplan is an integrated digital plan depicting the economic zones and the multimodal connectivity infrastructure.

It aims to integrate the interventions of various ministries and the central and state government departments. It addresses the missing connectivity gaps in such zones.

While all states and UTs have uploaded data on the NMP, the Centre has now urged them to conduct inter-department meetings.

This will help in interacting with investors and regional business associations to understand the interventions needed for both infrastructure and logistics. 

States have been asked to focus on developing logistics parks, integrated with warehouses, check posts, land custom stations and temperature-controlled facilities in their respective policy frameworks.

States have also been asked to give ‘industry status’ to logistics, which will enable access to finance on easier terms.

Citing a case regarding the use of NMP by states, Dawra said that under Chhattisgarh government’s ‘Narva Garwa Ghurwa Bari Yojana’, 300 rural industrial parks will be developed.

Similarly, use of the master plan expedited 5G rollout in Chandigarh. Apart from that disaster management plans were also developed in Goa. For instance, a tool was developed to identify high and low-level flood line areas in Goa and an evacuation plan was also developed, Dawra said.