Speeding Up

Context: Recently, Prime Minister launched PM Gati Shakti, a National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity.

About Gati Shakti digital platform

• A National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity: It will integrate road, railway, airport and multi-modal connectivity projects across the country, incorporating a range of existing infrastructure projects of the government such as Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, and UDAN.
• Connectivity upgradation: It promises to greatly enhance the national highway as well as the electricity transmission networks, increasing the cargo handling by railways and the cargo capacity at ports, and also setting up mega food parks, defence corridors, and electronics manufacturing clusters.
• Streamlining governance mechanism: By bringing together 16 ministries to help remove the hurdles in project implementation. The platform could also provide an effective mechanism for closely monitoring the public sector infrastructure projects.
  • This technology-led integrated approach could help align all stakeholders, ease the problems with attaining clearances, and bring about greater coordinated action across government departments.

Significance of the scheme

• Triggering multiplier effects: By timely implementation of such infrastructure projects.
  • Enhancing manufacturing competitiveness: By lowering logistical delays and costs.
• Coordinate the planning and execution of infrastructure connectivity programmes across the country and speed up implementation in order to bring down logistics costs.
• Lower the inefficiencies in supply chains: A recent report by CII and Arthur D Little had estimated the logistics costs in supply chains in India at 14 per cent of GDP, whereas it amounts only 8-10% in Europe/US/China.

Concerns associated with the scheme

• Effectiveness of a platform in ensuring better coordination among ministries is debatable: Breaking down bureaucratic silos may prove to be harder than expected.
• Federal concerns in ensuring participation of state governments: Centre will need to devise political interventions and ways to coax and incentivise state government participation and cooperation.

Conclusion: Success of Gati Shakti digital platform will depend on breaking bureaucratic silos, ensuring states’ participation.