Context: The PM Gati Shakti Scheme will transform Indian infrastructure and logistics.
Issues in Indian logistics sector
Colonial legacy: The British colonial domination had developed the transport infrastructure mainly to mine out wealth from India and ship it to England.
Negligence in post-independence policy: The fractionated style of policy-making and execution held back economic development of India, leading to unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities.
Cost of Indian logistics remains high: The cost of Indian logistics remains high at 13-14% of GDP compared to developed nations at 8-10%.
Modal mix is heavily skewed towards roads with 60-65% of transport happening via road compared to 25-30% in developed countries, prompting higher costs.
Excessive development on coal: As rail freight business are still coal based.
Domestic waterways face numerous challenges due to high first- and last-mile costs, unavailability of return load in most cases, high voyage costs for specialised vessels and high repositioning costs of domestic containers, among others.
Significance of Gati Shakti Plan
Synergise infrastructure development projects from multiple ministries under one master plan.
Optimisation of different modes of logistics to reduce freight costs and increase competitiveness, drive investment and create millions of jobs.
Leveraging technology and geospatial mapping to create an online dashboard departments and PSUs and private players have a bird’s eye view of each other’s planned development throughout the country.
Increase India’s highway network to 2 lakh km and provision utility corridors for laying adjoining power and optical fibre cables, which will be a life-saver in times of natural disasters.
Development of urban infrastructure by streamlining planning and approvals, and integrating civic amenities.
Integration of additional gas pipelines: The PM Gati Shakti Plan will integrate an additional 15,000 km of gas pipelines.