New Delhi [India], February 2 : The Interim Budget for 2024-25 announcement for implementation of three Economic Railway Corridor identified under the PM GatiShakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity, including energy, mineral, and cement corridors, port connectivity corridors, and high traffic density corridors.
It is seen as a big push towards logistics efficiency and reduction of logistics cost related to rail movement. It will decongest high density rail routes and facilitate modal shift from road to rail and to coastal shipping, thereby reducing carbon footprint in logistics.
Union Minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, welcomed the announcement as investment in infrastructure development will generate employment opportunities and have multiplier effect on the economic growth of the country. He said that the focus of the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been on infrastructure as it has direct impact on beneficiaries across sectors.
Since its launch, PM GatiShakti has been utilized in the planning of physical infrastructure and the Area Approach has been integrated for comprehensive planning of both economic and social sector assets (for example, gap analyzer tool for identifying infrastructure gaps, site suitability tool for identifying suitable site location for schools, Anganwadi centres, agriculture market yards, etc.).
The use of PM gati Shakti is also significantly de-risking infrastructure investments and encouraging FDI inflows through facilitation of logistics efficiency.
The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan is an approach that enables integrated and synchronised implementation of projects.
It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 13, 2021, with a vision to break departmental silos in government and institutionalize holistic planning for stakeholders across major infrastructure projects.
DPIIT secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh earlier this week said that the government is now planning to cover not just infrastructure but also social sectors, including hospitals, Anganwadi, schools, and colleges, among others.
This, he had said, would optimise and ensure a data-based decision-making process for building any new infrastructure in the social sector.
While highlighting the potential of the PM GatiShakti National Masterplan, the secretary said, India, in the business-as-usual scenario, can add USD 0.75 trillion to GDP every two years.
India, currently, is the world's fifth-largest economy, with an estimated GDP of about USD 3.7 trillion.
Highlighting the transformation in Indian infrastructure, the DPIIT Secretary noted that in the last nine years, national highway growth registered 1.6x: a 2x increase in port handling capacity, a 2x increase in the number of airports, 111 new waterways and the expansion of rail networks.
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