PM Gati Shakti gains momentum

New Delhi PM Gati Shakti, a GIS-enabled National Master Plan (NMP) for multi-modal connectivity, has picked up pace, expediting infrastructure projects in several sectors. This has made comprehensive planning for multimodal logistics possible, resulting in the effective implementation of the area development approach, official sources told Bizz Buzz.

With the conventional approach, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas’ Detail Route Survey (DRS) would prepare 46 reports in six to nine months. However, with the NMP through electronic DRS (eDRS), the reports are now created in a few hours, with a digital clip, making the process simpler and faster.

The Ministry also planned alignments of five pipelines under the North-East Gas Grid (NEGG), resulting in the reduction of the overall length by 42 km and saving Rs169 crore in cost.

The Ministry of Railways recently planned more than 13,000 km on the NMP, completing Final Location Surveys (FLSs) much quicker. With the use of NMP, as many as 427 FLS were carried out in 2021-22, whereas in the previous fiscal it could do only 57 FLSs.

Indian Railways has been able to speed up many of its projects using the PM Gati Shakti NMP platform. Railway officials said that the platform helped plan the pre-alignment process of the Taranga Hill-Ambaji-Abu Road Broad Gauge New Railway Line. This was completed in seven days, which otherwise would have taken about six months. The PM Gati Shakti NMP platform is also assisting the planning of projects like the Pune Bengaluru Expressway, the Bhadrak-Vizianagaram (Kalingnagar) third line project, and connectivity to the new terminal at Tuna-Tekra (Kandla).

Launched in October 2021, PM Gati Shakti is a digital platform that brings 16 infrastructure ministries, including those of Railways, Civil Aviation, Electronics & Information Technology, Shipping, and Road Transport - together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.