Gati Shakti national master plan: States to get on board by March-end

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade's (DPIIT) logistics division has been holding state-level conferences to explain the project

The Centre is coordinating with all state governments, hand holding them to integrate state-wise data on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Gati Shakti’ platform for smoother and faster implementation of infrastructure projects in the country.

The logistics division under Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has been holding zonal and state-level conferences to explain the concept of Modi’s pet project, train them, help them with ways to reduce logistics cost and get them on board for data sharing for efficient implementation of national master plan for multi-modal connectivity, also known as Gati Shakti.

“PM Gati Sakti is a powerful GIS (geographic information system) tool. Most central government departments have started using it. It will help reduce project planning and implementation time with availability of more data on the platform. Getting state-level data is critical,” a top government official told Business Standard.

“Our expectation is by March 31 all states will come on board. Some states, such as Gujarat, have already done their job. It has come on board, and shared information such as land ownership data, etc.,” the official said.

According to the official, availability of data related to soil structure, water, forest clearance, land ownership on the Gati Shakti portal can help decision making before implementing any infrastructure project or reduce logistics cost. For instance, with the help of the exhaustive data bank, a government department can evaluate if it is a better idea to build a few more kilometres of road and minimise the time taken for land-related clearance or any other such time-consuming clearances. “Hence, state-level data is equally important,” the official pointed out.

Launched by the Prime Minister in October, Gati Shakti is being developed into a digital platform, integrating the existing portal and data of key infrastructure ministries, as well as state governments. It has been prepared depicting the economic zones and the infrastructure linkages needed to support them. The larger idea is to build robust infrastructure, fill in the missing gaps in logistics and draw more investments into the country.