Big Infrastructure Push: PM Modi Launches Gati Shakti National Master Plan

In his eighth Independence Day speech this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his ambitious infrastructure plan, ‘Gati Shakti.’ On Wednesday, the plan was formally launched by the Prime Minister and described it as a historic event for the country's infrastructure landscape.

“In line with our mission of Atmanirbhar Bharat, today we’re laying the foundation of the next 25 years. This masterplan will give India gati shakti in the 21st Century,” Modi said while launching the Gati Shakti Master Plan.

Explaining the objective of the mission, Modi said that we often see road works getting completed and within months some other department would come and start digging the same road for laying new water or gas pipeline. “All such problems are due to lack of coordination between various departments. There is a huge difference between macro planning and micro implementation. Our various departments are not aware of what infrastructural projects other departments are planning,” he added.

He said that Gati Shakti Master Plan will solve such problems and ensure optimum utilisation of resources. The plan looks to make a centralized portal comprising of all existing and planned infrastructure initiatives of as many as 16 central ministries and departments.

Prime Minister highlighted that for years the ‘Work in Progress’ board had become a symbol of mistrust among people. “Earlier, we used to see 'work in progress' boards everywhere and people started to believe that it will never be completed. It showed distrust of people towards the government. But we changed it. We planned well and introduced 'gati' in development projects," he said.

Prime Minister Modi also gave a new mantra for India's progress in 21st century. "The mantra for the 21st Century India is will for progress, work for progress, wealth for progress, plan for progress and preference for progress."

Prime Minister also took a dig at the opposition for criticising infrastructural projects of national importance. “For years infrastructure has not been a priority of political parties. Even in election manifestos it was neglected. However, today we’re seeing a situation where opposition parties are criticising infrastructure projects of national importance,” he said.

Prime Minister also highlighted some achievements of his government in the last seven years and said that today, with the “whole of government approach,” the government is able to complete projects which have been pending for decades. 

“Before 2014, the metro was running on only about 250 km of track. Today the metro has been expanded up to 700 km and work is going on 1000 km new metro route. In the 5 years before 2014, only 60 panchayats could be connected with optical fiber. In the last 7 years, we have connected more than 1.5 lakh gram panchayats with optical fiber,” Modi said.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the latest initiative will not only give infrastructure creation a new direction but also provide a new pace to existing projects. Several industry leaders also lauded Prime Minister’s initiative. T.V. Narendran, Managing Director, Tata Steel and President CII described the master plan as a game changer.