Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday kicked off PM Gati Shakti, a national master plan for synchronising connectivity infrastructure projects across modes of transport, and said it will help India realise its dream to become a “business capital” of the world.
Taking on “some political parties” for criticising infrastructure projects that he said were necessary for the country, Mr. Modi said that “the subject of infrastructure has not been a priority for most of India’s political parties.
“This is not even visible in their manifesto… despite the fact that it is globally accepted that the creation of quality infrastructure for sustainable development is a proven way, which gives rise to many economic activities and creates employment on a large scale,” he pointed out.
Referring to common instances of roads being built only to be dug up afresh for work necessitated by other utilities like water, the Prime Minister said there was a wide gap between macro planning and micro implementation due to the lack of coordination and advance information sharing as departments think and work in silos. This, he said, was leading to hampered construction and wastage of budget resources.
Logistics hubs
Citing the example of Dadri, where an integrated industrial township was coming up, the Prime Minister said India needed similar “plug and play” infrastructure so that investors could just come and begin working seamlessly.
Like in Greater Noida’s Dadri, such an integrated township could be connected to the eastern and western dedicated freight corridor. For that, multi-modal logistics hubs would be built alongside, which would have a state-of-the-art railway terminus, inter and intra-State bus terminus, mass rapid transport system and other conveniences.
“By building these across different parts of the country, India could achieve the dream of becoming the world’s business capital,” he underlined.
“Our goals are extraordinary and will require extraordinary efforts. In realising these goals, PM Gati Shakti will be the most helpful factor. Just as JAM [Jan Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile] trinity revolutionised the access of government facilities to the people, PM Gati Shakti will do the same for the field of Infrastructure,” Mr. Modi said.
Also read | Need to double infra spending: Seth
Stalled projects
Recalling his initial findings after taking over as the PM in 2014, Mr. Modi said he reviewed hundreds of stalled infrastructure projects and decided to put all projects on a single platform and tried to remove hurdles. Now, with a “whole of government approach”, the collective power of the government is being channelled into fulfilling the schemes by avoiding delays caused by coordination gaps.
“Because of this, many unfinished projects are being completed for decades now,” he said, citing improved infrastructure outcomes in the last seven years across sectors, ranging from railway line electrification to gas pipelines, metro rail services and mega food parks.
“There were just five waterways in 2014. Today, there are 13 functional waterways. Turnaround time of the vessels at the ports has come down to 27 hours from 41 hours in 2014. Today, India has 4.25 lakh circuit kilometre power transmission lines compared to 3 lakh circuit kilometres in 2014,” the Prime Minister said at the launch of the Gati Shakti programme.
Union Ministers pertaining to key infrastructure ministries attended the launch function, including Highways and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Power Minister R.K. Singh, Telecom and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri and Industry and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath attended the launch virtually, with the Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Tripura and the Lieutenant Governors of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar.
