3 NEW CORRIDOR UNDER GATISHAKTI (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: 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 (i) energy, mineral, and cement corridors, (ii) port connectivity corridors, and (iii) high traffic density corridors.

PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan framework

• Background: It was announced by the Prime minister of India in August 2021 and was launched in October 2021.
• Aim: It is the first National Infrastructure Masterplan. The National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity is essentially a digital platform to bring 16 Ministries includes Railways and Roadways and others.

oTo boost economic growth (Shakti) through infrastructure building. 

oTo improve the productivity of industries and employment opportunities.  

oIt is considered to be the government's integrated approach to developing modern railways, roadways, waterways and airways.

• Method: It breaks the inter-ministerial silos and to integrate the planning of infrastructure projects related to road, rail, air and waterways etc.
• Integration: It incorporates the infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc. 
• Pillars of PM Gati Shakti:
• Comprehensiveness: It will include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralized portal.
• 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. 
• Synchronization: Individual Ministries and Departments often work in silos. It will help in synchronizing the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance.
• 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.