Union Cabinet approves PM GatiShakti National Master Plan

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, including implementation, monitoring and support mechanism, for providing multi-modal connectivity.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on October 13, had launched a Rs 100 lakh crore national master plan for multi-modal connectivity to develop infrastructure to reduce logistic costs and boost the economy.

It targets to cut logistic costs, increase cargo handling capacity and reduce the turnaround time.

An Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) headed by the Cabinet Secretary and secretaries of 18 ministries as members, among others, will be set up.

Briefing the media regarding the decision, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said a Multimodal Network Planning Group (NPG) will be constituted with representation from the heads of the Network Planning Division from various ministries and departments.

The NPG will be supported by a technical support unit (TSU) located in the Logistics Division of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The TSU will have domain experts from various infrastructure sectors, such as aviation, maritime, public transport, rail, roads and highways, ports, power, pipeline, GIS, ICT, finance/market PPP, logistics, data analytics, among others.

The EGOS has been mandated to review and monitor the implementation of the PM GatiShakti NMP to ensure logistics efficiency.