Modi unveils Rs 100 lakh-crore master plan to give 'gati' to infrastructure development

PM Gati Shakti targets to cut logistic costs, increase cargo handling capacity and reduce the turnaround time

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a Rs 100 lakh crore national master plan for multi-modal connectivity that seeks to provide “plug-and-play” infrastructure for investors to set up business in the country.

The Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti master plan, launched in the presence of top industrialists here, seeks to bring 16 central government departments on a single platform for planning and executing all infrastructure connectivity projects.

“PM-Gati Shakti will ensure that 21st century India does not suffer monetary losses or time on infrastructure projects due to lack of coordination,” Modi said at a function organised at the revamped Pragati Maidan.

The Gati Shakti initiative, announced by Modi in his Independence Day address, is a geospatial digital platform with 200 layers of GIS mapping of the entire country that would give the implementation agency enabling it to visualise, review and monitor progress of cross-sectoral projects.

The comprehensive map provides a bird’s eye view of infrastructure development with each layer giving information on completion timelines of various economic zones, infrastructure and utilities across the country.

The Prime Minister has set targets on reducing logistics costs, increasing cargo handling by railways and ports, reducing the turnaround time for cargo ships, increasing number of airports to 200, developing a 25,000-acre area for industries, including 11 industrial corridors, achieving a Rs 1.7 lakh crore turnover in defence production and having 38 electronics manufacturing clusters and 109 pharma clusters by 2024-25.

“Today, the government has adopted an approach to develop plug-and-play infrastructure so that investors from across the globe can come to India with their systems and start working,” Modi said.

He said an integrated industrial township was being developed at Dadri in Greater Noida which will be linked to ports on eastern and western parts of the country through dedicated corridors. A logistics hub, a multi-modal transport hub with state of the art railways, bus terminals and mass rapid transit system would support the township.

“Developing similar facilities in different parts of the country could help India achieve its dream of emerging as the business capital of the world,” Modi said.

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