Massive oath taking ceremony after a newly elected government makes us skip our heart beat every five years. And sometimes even within these five years too. Add to that the ministers being from various small towns, cities and metro cities of the country. With these ministers being dependent on their secretaries to co-ordinate between ministries and departments, it is logical that with ego clashes there will be delays in giving clearance and go ahead for various infrastructure projects. After 74 years of independence, present government has initiated an ambitious plan called as ‘Gati Shakti’.
The planning and co-ordination that PM Gati Shakti seeks to build multi-modal infrastructure in the country. Given the cost and scarcity of capital, and time, it is essential to provide facilities—industrial corridors, electronic parks, inland waterways, agri-zones and pharma clusters—but not duplicate them.
Data on around 1,700 infrastructure projects suggests an average 20% cost-overrun and a 3+ year time-overrun. Commerce minister Piyush Goyal says the aim should be to reduce the cost of logistics to 8% of the GDP from 13% currently; that could translate into savings of a massive INR 20 lakh crore.
The masterplan promises every aspect of planning—from working with all stakeholders to ensuring last-mile connectivity—will be taken care of. This is sought to be achieved by setting up an institutional mechanism, comprising experts from 16 infra ministries—the Network Planning Group (NPG)—who will study multi-modal infra projects worth INR 500 crore or more and will ensure things move as planned.
NPowersU Expert Opinion
No doubt this is a delayed step in the right direction. Such massive infrastructure projects are located in various states. As soon as states governed under parties other than central ruling party comes into play, co-ordination and decisions are further affected. We are sure the Gati Shakti plan will have considered the same in the minute details that have been worked up.
Can we say ‘A stitch in roads, saves hoards’
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