Govt may open PM Gati Shakti portal likely for private players

The union government may throw open its digital infrastructure tool PM Gati Shakti Master plan portal to the private sector enabling them to fast track implementation of key projects, two officials aware of the said.

The PM Gati Shakti platform is currently accessible only by government departments, state agencies and public private partnership (PPP) projects. Going forward, the plan is to give limited access to the private sector which could include sharing information such as availability of land and clearances required to take the projects forward.

“The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan is currently designed to aid infrastructure planning. It has a centralised portal that united the infrastructural initiatives planned and initiated by 16 central ministries and departments, including railways, roads and highways among others. Several private sector project proponents could also gain a lot from this initiative. So, certain changes in Gati Shakti architecture is being worked upon that would provide even pure private sector projects to get the advantages of planned infra development,” the official added.

The digital infrastructure developed by Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) aimed at assisting projects has over 2,000 layers of information. With GIS mapping being completed for entire country, along with information on markets, demand centres, transport logistics, the portal would enrich a project proponents experience and help in better planning of projects, the official added.

The platform would also work out the entire logistical planning for any infrastructure project and also point out the gaps that could be remedied with separate intervention of the central and state governments.

Query sent to ministry of commerce and ministry of finance on the proposed changes in Gati Shakti architecture remained unanswered till the time of going to press.

The Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti National Master Plan is a central government project, aimed to revolutionise infrastructure in India. Prime minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the Gati Shakti Yojana, a ₹100 lakh-crore project for developing ‘holistic infrastructure’ in India on the 75th independence day. The touchstone of the Gati Shakti master plan is world-class, modern infrastructure and logistics synergy among different modes of movement of both, people and goods, and location of projects.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier asked Niti Aayog to map various Infra projects in the country including the Industrial Corridors, freight Corridors, PM Mitra Parks, and defense Corridors and bring them under PM Gati Shakti scheme for optimum utilization of resources.

India’s logistics sector is largely unorganized and fragmented which is why the logistics costs in the country are as high as 14 to 15% of the GDP. Developed nations such as Singapore and the US have managed to cap this cost under 7% to 8% of the GDP and leveraged it to boost exports. The National Logistics Policy (NLP) along with PM Gati Shakti aims to integrate the logistics sector and bring India’s logistics cost to 8% in the next five years.

As per some estimates, about 30% of the total Agri production gets wasted at different stages of the supply chain causing enormous losses. NLP is designed to limit losses incurred while transporting perishable agricultural commodities to under 5% by improving the warehouse facilities and cold chain efficiency.