PM Narendra Modi to discuss Gati Shakti with India Inc on Monday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host a virtual meet on Monday that will see participants of states, top industrialists, especially from the infrastructure space, to apprise them of the government’s latest push towards its ambitious Gati Shakti approach.

Heads of companies such as Cube Highways, Tata Chemicals, Flipkart, TVS, Bain & Company, among others, are expected to be present. Besides, officials from states have also been invited, a senior government official told Business Standard.

The official said that over a period of time, the larger idea is to give access to the Gati Shakti or the national masterplan platform for multimodal connectivity to private players to ensure speedy implementation of infrastructure projects across the country.

Gati Shakti, a digital portal, is currently in a testing phase but officials said that a full-fledged launch should be done by the end of March. “Right now, the portal is still being developed. Some layers of data integration are yet to be done,” the official cited above said. He added that the prime minister’s virtual meeting will ensure the Centre is able to keep up with the momentum of the Budget announcement.

In the Union Budget 2022-23, the finance minister had said Gati Shakti would not only be a tool to give impetus to economic growth but will also be one of the four priorities for the government next fiscal year.

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

“Once we have the entire data (including from states), we will also let private companies use the portal with nominal fees. Meanwhile, we need to prepare protocols for private users’ access, keeping the data security in mind,” the official said.

Launched 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. It will help in reducing project planning and implementation time with the availability of more data on the platform, fill in the missing gaps in logistics, and draw more investments into the country.