Private players to get limited access to GatiShakti masterplan: DPIIT

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will give limited access to the GatiShakti national masterplan to the private sector. It has been holding inter-ministerial meetings to examine the matter.

“There is a geospatial policy of the science and technology department, within the framework of which we have to go ahead. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is also an important stakeholder because of issues such as data security,” DPIIT Special Secretary Sumita Dawra told reporters on Friday.

The government will sit and look at various dimensions, especially with respect to information that is sensitive.

“Every ministry owns data and will have to identify what data (on the national masterplan) it wants to share. What is already in the public domain should not be an issue,” Dawra said.

Apart from that there is a need to make a decision that once the data is made public, its objective should be clear.

The idea behind giving access to the masterplan to private players has been to help them in execution of infrastructure projects, depending on the extent to which data is shared. However, preparing protocols for private users’ access will be crucial, considering security concerns.

The private sector would also see the connectivity issues when they are choosing locations, how they can promote faster logistics, among other things, she said.

The masterplan, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2021, is a comprehensive database of the ongoing and future infrastructure projects of various ministries integrated, with the larger idea to bring down logistics cost by addressing the issue of missing connectivity gaps as well as support data-based decision making.