New Delhi - During the milestone 51st meeting of the Network Planning Group under PM GatiShakti chaired by Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, along with Smt. Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary (Logistics), DPIIT, five projects of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) worth Rs. 15,683 cr. were evaluated.

These five projects in States of Mizoram (1), Maharashtra (2), Uttarakhand (1) and Kanpur (1), are expected to improve connectivity to industrial clusters and social sector assets and improve logistics efficiency through streamlining freight traffic movement and decongestion of cities.

NPG members from M/o Road Transport and Highways, M/o Railways, M/o Ports, Shipping and Waterways, M/o Civil Aviation, M/o Power, M/o Petroleum and Natural Gas, Department of Telecommunication (DoT), M/o New and Renewable Energy and NITI Aayog participated in the 51st NPG meeting, along with representatives from concerned States.

Launched on October 13th, 2021, the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) adopts a 'whole of government' approach to infrastructure planning and implementation. Two key elements for operationalizing the PM GatiShakti (PMGS) include: (i) GIS data based digital platform and (ii) institutional framework.

So far, 39 line Ministries/Departments including 8 infrastructure, 13 economic and 18 social sector Ministries/Departments, and 36 States/UTs have been onboarded on PM GatiShakti NMP.

During the NPG meetings held every fortnight under the chairpersonship of Special Secretary (Logistics) DPIIT, project proposals of different Ministries/Depts are evaluated PM GatiShakti principles including intersection with assets of other Ministries / forest/wildlife date layers; suitability of alignment to minimize dislocation of habitation; utilisation of existing government land to the extent possible; comprehensive socio-economic development of the influence area, etc. The aim is to minimize disruption, explore complementarities, promote optimized and holistic planning for multimodal connectivity, and improve last mile connectivity and logistics efficiency.