Social sector infrastructure will also be part of PM GakiShakti National Masterplan: Secretary, DPIIT

Jan 30, 2024

NEW DELHI, 30 January 2024: Mr Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt of India while highlighting the potential of PM GatiShakti National Masterplan said that today, India is the world's 5^th largest economy with a GDP of $ 3.7 trillion and is growing at a pace where we expect even at the business-as-usual scenario to add $ 0.75 trillion to GDP every two years. “As a result, we expect India to reach $ 5 trillion by the end of 2025 and $7 trillion by 2030 and become the world's 3^rd largest economy,” he added.

Addressing the ‘PM GatiShakti Summit’, organized by FICCI, jointly with DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt of India, Mr Singh stated that the strong growth is propelled by a strong political leadership, robust macroeconomic management, unparalleled investment in public infrastructure including the public infrastructure. “PM GatiShakti ensures that we do pro-active planning rather than reactive planning. We have to ensure that last mile connectivity is planned in advance,” he added.

Mr Singh also stated that we are now planning to cover not just infrastructure but social sector including planning of hospitals, Anganwadi, schools, college, etc. to optimize and have a databased decision-making process for building any new infrastructure in the social sector. “We are now also trying to focus on not only network planning and social infrastructure but area planning as well. The idea is to ensure having a saturation coverage and planning of infrastructure for the entire hinterland which is linked to investment. We plan to roll-out this initiative at all districts across the country and all District Collectors will have access to the data which will empower them to plan better for their respective jurisdiction,” he added. 

Highlighting the transformation in Indian infrastructure, DPIIT Secretary noted that in last 9 years, national highways growth registered 1.6x; 2x increase in port handling capacity, 2x increase in number of airports; 111 new waterways and expansion of rail networks. “These factors are also reflected in our logistics cost estimates. Our current logistic cost has come down to 8-9 per cent of GDP as compared to earlier estimates of 14 per cent,” he noted. As part of India’s commitment to global south, Mr Singh also stated that the government is working to showcase and share the PM GatiShakti National Masterplan, free of cost, to few of the neighboring countries and to the countries in the global south.

Ms Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary (Logistics), DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt of India said, “PM GatiShakti is a transformative approach to integrated planning of multiomodal infrastructure, last-mile connectivity, reducing logistics cost and ensuring seamless movement of people and goods.”

She further emphasized that we can reduce the logistic cost by building better infrastructure, multimodality, advancing modal shift and services, and improving operations and environmental regulations. “The PM GatiShakti National Masterplan is also focused towards strengthening regional connectivity by overall regional development and plugging in first and last mile gaps to connect all economic centres and social sector institutions. Using PM GatiShakti approach, multimodal connectivity to growth centres and border points is being facilitated, thereby enhancing connectivity with regional partners,” she added.

Ms Dawra highlighted that with the launch of PM GaktiShakti platform, we are witnessing a reduction in the logistic cost, and are currently working towards integrating the platform with survey-based system which will be rolled-out this year.

Highlighting the government's new approach of revolutionizing the planning process, Ms Dawra said, "Through an integrated & a holistic approach, we are looking at a more technology-driven and optimized planning process. This includes replacing subjective decision-making with an objective-based data-driven decision. The planning approach also bridges critical infrastructure gaps such as the pre-alignment preparation in road transport and highways projects is now done in 15 days as compared to six months previously. In case of railways, the construction of new rail lines has increased from 4 km per day to 12 km per day in 2023.”

Mr Sandip Somany, Past President, FICCI and Chairman & Managing Director, Somany Impressa Group stated that PM GatiShakti embodies a visionary approach to seamlessly integrate our sectors, optimize our processes, and elevate India's infrastructure to global standards. “To achieve our goal of becoming the world's third-largest economy by 2027, India must amplify the production capabilities and performance of its current infrastructure while enhancing domestic services and our role in the global supply chains,” he added.

Mr Shailesh K Pathak, Secretary General, FICCI said that the four stages of infrastructure are design, financing, timely construction, and operation. “PM GatiShakti enables us to better our design construction and operations.  FICCI members have already benefited from outcomes of PM GatiShakti National Masterplan and the National Logistics Policy,” he added.

FICCI-CRISIL report ‘Sustainable Multimodal Logistics: A Vision and Green Logistics Paradigm’, was released during the event.