PM Gati Shakti Scheme

General Studies Paper 2

The states are being on boarded for real-time project coordination and collective decision-making in Pm Gati Shakti scheme.

• With the states being on boarded aim is to reduce the time taken to plan and award a project by at least a third.
• Recently, at the meeting chaired by Prime Minister and state chief secretaries, all state governments are learnt to have agreed to support the project.
• The focus is on reducing the time taken to award a project — starting from preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) till the project is assigned.
• While the process usually takes about 16-18 months, it is estimated that it could take just five-six months under the Gati Shakti scheme if a coordinated, real-time approach is implemented. 

PM Gati Shakti

• PM Gati Shakti plan envisages a centralised portal to unite the infrastructural initiatives planned and initiated by as many as 16 central ministries and departments.
• GatiShakti targets to cut logistic costs, increase cargo handling capacity and reduce the turnaround time.
• It is a campaign to lend more speed (Gati) and power (Shakti) to projects by connecting all concerned departments on one platform.
• This way, the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and state governments will be designed and executed with a common vision.

Pillars of Gati Shakti:

Comprehensiveness:

• It will include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralized portal.
• Each and every Department will now have visibility of each other’s activities providing critical data while planning & execution of projects in a comprehensive manner.

Prioritization:

• Through this, different Departments will be able to prioritize their projects through cross-—sectoral interactions.

Optimization:

• The National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after identification of critical gaps.
• For the transportation of the goods from one place to another, the plan will help in selecting the most optimum route in terms of time and cost.

Synchronization:

• PM GatiShakti will help in synchronizing the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination of work between them.

Analytical:

• The plan will provide the entire data at one place with GIS based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility to the executing agency.

Dynamic:

• All Ministries and Departments will now be able to visualize, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects, through the GIS platform, as the satellite imagery will give on-ground progress periodically and progress of the projects will be updated on a regular basis on the portal.
• It will help in identifying the vital interventions for enhancing and updating the master plan.