Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched the ambitious Rs 100 lakh crore Gati Shakti Master Plan to provide multi-modal connectivity to more than 1,200 industrial clusters, including two defence corridors across the country.
The plan is an important part of Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-dependent India) vision and ambitiously aims to lend more power and speed to projects under the $1.5-trillion National Infrastructure Pipeline and boost the goal of achieving a $5-trillion economy, especially in wake of the recent economic impacts of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
GatiShakti will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various Union ministries and state governments — Bharatmala, Sagarmala, UDAN, inland waterways, dry/land ports etc.
Economic Zones such as textile, pharmaceutical and fishing clusters, electronic parks, defence and industrial corridors, and agriculture zones will be covered to improve connectivity.
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Prime Minister Modi, at the Gati Shakti plan inauguration, said that the development of India’s infrastructure does not feature on the list of priorities for most political parties.
“In our country, the subject of infrastructure has been far from the priority of most political parties. This is not even visible in his manifesto. Now the situation has come that some political parties have started criticising the construction of necessary infrastructure for the country, ” Said Prime Minister Modi.
Alluding to the BJP-led central government, he noted, “We have not only developed a work-culture of completing the projects within the stipulated time frame, but today efforts are being made to complete the projects ahead of time.”
The Prime Minister had announced ‘PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan’ in his Independence Day speech on August 15 this year.
(With inputs from ANI)
