PM GatiShakti must be effectively leveraged with Area Development Approach to extend benefits to the nation beyond infrastructure: Shri Piyush Goyal

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal said that PM GatiShakti must be effectively leveraged using the Area Development Approach to extend benefits to the nation beyond the infrastructure sector. Shri Goyal chaired a meeting to review the progress of PM GatiShakti with DPIIT and eight concerned ministries in New Delhi last evening. The Minister emphasized upon the participating Ministries/Departments to harness the full potential of the integrated platform to further accelerate India’s infrastructure and economic growth.

Shri Goyal said that the Agriculture sector can be supported by setting up common facilities on agricultural lands by cooperatives and start-ups using the integrated framework of PM GatiShakti and data from the National Master Plan (NMP). The Minister highlighted that the Area Development Approach under PM GatiShakti can be used for engaging with aspirational districts of NITI Aayog.

Besides senior officials from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the meeting saw representation 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, Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) and National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC).

Special Secretary, DPIIT, Ms. Sumita Dawra presented the progress of PM GatiShakti in terms of improving the data quality of the NMP, standardizing data layers and establishing Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) mechanism for better planning. To encourage usage of NMP for social sector planning, five new Ministries are proposed to be on-boarded on PM GatiShakti, in addition to fourteen social sector Departments/Ministries already onboard, to augment the socioeconomic development in the country.  In addition to improving the domestic logistics ecosystem, DPIIT is progressively working towards improving the EXIM logistics. An EXIM Logistics Group has been formed with other concerned Departments/Ministries. An action plan for improving the country’s performance on each of the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) parameters of the World Bank report will be formulated and executed soon. Efforts are also being made to ensure end-to-end multi-modal tracking of cargo by integrating Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) with GSTN data. In order to impart wider understanding and adoption, capacity building of officials at States level is also planned through training modules on PM GatiShakti at Central Training Institutes.

Considering Infrastructure as a growth engine and need for a ‘whole of government’ approach for Infrastructure development, the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) was launched in October 2021.

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AM/VN