As many as six infrastructure projects of roads and railways worth Rs 52,000 crore have been recommended for approval under the PM Gati Shakti initiative, an official statement said on Thursday. This takes the total number of projects assessed by the Network Planning Group (NPG) to 112, amounting to approximately Rs 11.53 lakh crore since the inception of PM Gati Shakti.
6 projects assessed in 56th NPG meeting
These six projects were assessed in the 56th Network Planning Group (NPG) meeting on September 27. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Group meeting under PM GatiShakti six project proposals, including four projects of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and two projects of the Ministry of Railways (MoR) with a total project cost of about Rs 52,000 crore were assessed.
The inter-ministerial NPG meets every fortnight and appraises infra projects to ensure multi-modality, synchronisation of efforts, and comprehensive development in and around the project location. The PM Gati Shakti initiative was introduced to establish an integrated infrastructure system aimed at reducing logistics costs. All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investments of over Rs 500 crore are routed through the NPG.
The approval of the NPG is necessary before the project can be cleared by the Public Investment Board (PIB) or the Department of Expenditure under the finance ministry. The maximum number of projects recommended by the group are related to roads, railways and urban development.
About role of NPG
The NMP has a number of layers of geospatial data showing all physical and social infrastructure of an area and land records in one place. It has been designed for faster planning and better design so that the impact of an investment is maximised. The NPG has representations from various connectivity infrastructure ministries/ departments involving their heads of network planning division for unified planning and integration of the proposals.
All these departments approach the NPG first for approval before making a DPR (Detailed Project Report) at the planning stage. After the NPG’s clearance, the project follows the normal procedure of approval by the finance ministry and the Cabinet. Over 1,400 layers of data, including those related to land, ports, forests, and highways, are available on the portal. Usage of the portal by different ministries, including social sector departments and states, is increasing and it is helping in the proper planning of projects, it said.
(With PTI inputs)