DPIIT ropes in 5 social sector ministries for infra development

The commerce and industry ministry has been engaged with five social sector departments, including health and panchayati raj, for integrated and efficient infrastructure development by them through the PM GatiShakti initiative, a top government official said.

The five ministries/departments are health, ministry of women and child development, department of rural development and panchayat raj, education, and ministry of housing and urban affairs. On October 13, PM Narendra Modi launched the Gati Shakti- National Master Plan aimed at developing integrated infrastructure to reduce logistic costs.  

All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investment of over Rs 500 crore, are routed through the Network Planning Group (NPG), constituted under the PM Gati Shakti initiative. “We have recently started engaging with the social sector departments also to see how we can utilise (the initiative) to improve functioning in these sectors. We have started expanding our horizon to the social sector also,” DPIIT Secretary Anurag Jain said.