HPAS/Allied Mains 2022 Answer Writing Challenge Day 185: Model Answer

QUESTION: What is Gati Shakti Master Plan and what is the need for such plan? (8 marks/ 120 words)

Answer:

Gati Shakti Master Plan, a Rs 100 lakh-crore project for building ‘holistic infrastructure’ in India. The ‘Gati Shakti’ scheme aims at  creating a digital platform promising the “integrated planning and coordinated execution” by sixteen ministries.

The multi-modal connectivity will provide integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services from one mode of transport to another. It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people.

PM Gati Shakti is based on six pillars:

• 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: Individual Ministries and Departments often work in silos. There is lack of coordination in planning and implementation of the project resulting in delays. PM Gati Shakti 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.

Need for such plan:

• The push for infrastructure is in line with the government’s efforts to step up capital expenditure in infrastructure to promote economic growth.
• Infrastructure development has the ability to create a multiplier effect with every rupee invested, yielding much higher returns.