New Delhi: Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal today launched the district version of ‘PM GatiShakti’ National Master Plan for 27 aspirational districts in the country on the occasion of the completion of three years of PM GatiShakti.
Goyal said that Gatishakti is a “Super intelligent” tool for infrastructure planning and that the District Master Plan will be expanded to cover more than 750 districts across the country in the next 18 months.
The Minister also launched the ‘Guidelines for Preparing City Logistics Plans for Indian Cities’ to help cities tailor their logistics planning to meet their unique vision, objectives, and local characteristics.
Goyal emphasised that the adoption of geospatial and other cutting-edge technologies in the PM GatiShakti Master Plan marks a significant stride towards revolutionising the connectivity landscape. “Every data in PM GatiShakti is validated, double-checked and a mechanism has been introduced for periodic updation of the data,” he said.
Applauding the team of Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics, a national agency by the Government of Gujarat to facilitate providing services and solutions in implementing map-based GeoSpatial Information Systems, for developing the master tool, the Minister called PM GatiShakti a superior intelligence and stressed that the GIS-enabled platform will help save significant budget for the government and plan to build infrastructure with more efficiency due to its data-backed decision-making process.
According to him, PM GatiShakti has become “the fulcrum around which infrastructure outreach programmes are going from strength to strength”. He claimed that PM GatiShakti has been instrumental in enabling a multiplier effect on the economy and helping India become one of the largest fast-growing economies.
Goyal said that the National Master Plan “is a faster, better, efficient, more cost-effective and high-quality” tool for India to foray into world-class infrastructure. He said that speed and strength today are the defining features of India as the country is recognised worldwide for modern high-quality infrastructure delivered on time, planned for the future and implemented with efficiency. He said that the tool will be utilised by the world for their infrastructure planning in the future.
He further stated that the ambit of PM GatiShakti has been expanded to social infrastructure to map power distribution lines, schools, hospitals and others using the ‘Area Development Approach’ initiative. “While we are planning for outcomes for physical infrastructure, can we also plan for social infrastructure, for ease of living? PM GatiShakti is progressing now to merge ease of doing business and ease of living because they are synonymous with each other,” he said.
– global bihari bureau
