Programs in News: PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan

Programs in News: PM launches Gati Shakti- National Master Plan for infrastructure development. Finance Minister announced first-ever outlay of Rs 20,000 crore in the Budget for FY22-23 for PM Gati Shakti National, a Rs 100-lakh-crore project.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech in Parliament said that the government will introduce a master plan for PM Gati Shakti National, a Rs 100-lakh-crore project, for building holistic infrastructure in the country. It received its first-ever outlay of Rs 20,000 crore in the Budget for FY22-23.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity. The master plan is essentially a digital platform that will bring 16 ministries, including roadways and railways together for integrated planning, coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects while providing seamless connectivity for the movement of people, goods, and services from one mode of transport to another.

It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people. PM Gati Shakti is inclusive development, productivity enhancement, energy transmission, climate action, and financing of investment.

About PM Gati Shakti Program:

Gati Shakti — a digital platform — will bring 16 Ministries including Railways and Roadways together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.

It will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc.

Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri zones will be covered to improve connectivity & make Indian businesses more competitive.

It will also leverage technology extensively including spatial planning tools with ISRO imagery developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics).

PM GatiShakti is based on six pillars:

Comprehensiveness: It will include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralized portal. Each and every Department will now have visibility of each other’s activities providing critical data while planning & execution of projects in a comprehensive manner.

Prioritization: Through this, different Departments will be able to prioritize their projects through cross–sectoral interactions.

Optimization: The National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after identification of critical gaps. For the transportation of the goods from one place to another, the plan will help in selecting the most optimum route in terms of time and cost.

Synchronization: Individual Ministries and Departments often work in silos. There is lack of coordination in planning and implementation of the project resulting in delays. PM GatiShakti will help in synchronizing the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination of work between them.

Analytical: The plan will provide the entire data at one place with GIS based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility to the executing agency.

Dynamic: All Ministries and Departments will now be able to visualize, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects, through the GIS platform, as the satellite imagery will give on-ground progress periodically and progress of the projects will be updated on a regular basis on the portal. It will help in identifying the vital interventions for enhancing and updating the master plan.

Institutional Framework:

The institutional framework for rolling out, implementation, monitoring and support mechanism is designed to have a three-tier system

Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGOs)
Network Planning Group (NPG)
Technical Support Unit (TSU)

EGOs will be headed by Cabinet Secretary and will consist of Secretaries of 18 Ministries as members and Head of Logistics Division as Member Convenor.

The EGOS has been mandated to review and monitor implementation of the PM GatiShakti to ensure logistics efficiency
It is empowered to prescribe framework and norms for undertaking any subsequent amendments to the Master Plan

Cabinet Committee Economic Affairs (CCEA) has also approved formation, composition and terms of reference for Network Planning Group (NPG) consisting of heads of Network Planning wing of respective infrastructure ministries and it will assist the EGOs

Further, in view of the complexities involved in overall integration of networks, enhancing optimization to avoid duplication of works for holistic development of any region as well as reducing logistics costs through micro-plan detailing, the Technical Support Unit (TSU) is approved for providing the required competencies.

The master plan takes a holistic approach to sector-specific developments by integrating 16 ministries in a joint committee to implement and monitor Rs. 100 lakh crores of investment.

A closer look at the sector-wise take outs are as follows:

In the Telecommunication sector, a total length of 35,00,000 km of optical fiber cable network is to be laid down by 2024-25. Connecting all 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats with high-speed internet and 4G mobile connectivity by 2022.
New and Renewable Energy sector capacity is to be increased from 87.7 Gigawatt to 225 Gigawatt by 2024-25. 50 per cent of India’s power generation capacity is to be met by renewable energy sources by 2024-25.
Power transmission network is to be upgraded from 4,25,500 circuit km to 4,54,200 circuit km by 2024-25. Transmission network performance parameters to match the best global standards.
In Petroleum and Natural Gas sector, 17000 km long trunk pipeline, connecting major demand and supply centres for industries, is to be added by 2024-25 making a total length of 34500 km of pipeline across the country. All states to be connected with the trunk natural gas pipeline network by 2027
Powered by Bharatmala, in the road transport and highways sector two lakh km route of national highway network to be achieved by 2024-25
Powered by Regional Connectivity Scheme – UDAN, civil aviation sector to see an increase in the aviation footprint globally. 220 airports, heliports and water aerodromes to be operational by 2024-25
Powered by Sagarmala, shipping sector to see an increase in cargo capacity at the ports to 1759 Million Metric Tonnes per Annum (MMTPA) by 2024-25 from 1282 MMTPA in 2020.
By 2024-25, Indian Railways to see a decongestion by 51 per cent due to completion of critical project

Some sectors where Economic Zones are proposed are as follows:

For promotion of industry and internal trade, 11 industrial corridors comprising 32 nodes/ projects to be developed in four phases by 2024-25
90 textile clusters/mega textile parks to be developed by 2024-25. Ten mega integrated textile regions/parks to have plug and play facilities, common facilities and integrated value chain
109 pharma and medical device clusters to be developed by 2024-25. Ten pharma clusters to be developed by financing common facilities worth Rs. 20 crore each.
For electronics manufacturing, 38 Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) to be developed by 2024-25.
By 2024-25, two defense corridors to be developed with a target investment of over Rs. 10000 crore each. A turnover of Rs. 170000 crore including export of Rs. 35000 crores in aerospace and defense goods and services to be achieved by 2024-25.
By 2024-25, 197 mega food parks and agro processing centers to be developed increasing the food processing and preservation capacity from 222 lakh MT to 847 lakh MT
By 2024-25, 202 fishing clusters/fishing harbors and major fishing landing centres to be developed with an additional fish production of 70 lakh metric tonnes and doubling of fisheries exports.

PM Gati Shakti as Pillar - I of Union Budget 2022-23:

Union Budget 2022-23 has four pillars and out of which first pillar is Gati-Shakti and there were announcements made under that, IBPS can ask mix of both questions from Original scheme by connecting it to Union Budget announcements.