Industry is hopeful that the government may soon agree to open up access to the PM Gati Shakti portal developed for planning multi-modal infrastructure projects, thus helping facilitate greater private capital investments especially in connectivity projects that are seen as critical to sustain the economy’s momentum.
Unveiled in October 2021, the PM Gati Shakti digital platform brings together 16 ministries, including Railways and Roadways, so as to spur an integrated and coordinated approach to planning and implementing infrastructure connectivity projects across the country. So far, access to portal’s data, which include detailed maps with existing economic and social infrastructure as well as upcoming projects, is restricted to Central and State government agencies and departments.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president R. Dinesh, who is also the executive vice chairman of TVS Supply Chain Solutions, told The Hindu that some access to the portal’s information trove would help not just logistics firms plan operations, but also enable fresh capital spending across allied sectors.
“We are saying [to the government] that we want access to the data,” Mr. Dinesh said. “And of course, you can block the sensitive data if I can use that word, and the rest should be made available. Because it also helps plan, not just for logistics companies, but also for the first mile and last mile connectivity… that can be a big benefit for all of the planning of the private sector as well. And that will actually help attract more capex and outside funding,” he added.
For instance, if there were 36 layers of information mapped into the portal, he stressed that the industry need not be granted access to all those layers as the government would likely have some data privacy concerns.
“Give us access to the relevant facts and data, so that we can see. I think that has been received and I hope it will happen soon. I think the challenge for the government is they have added many more planes to it, so they want to get that right before making it available, but I don’t think there’s any major pushback to the idea,” the CII chief said.
