Latest News | 196 Critical Infra Gap Projects Identified; NPG Coordinating on Issues: DPIIT Official

New Delhi, Sep 15 (PTI) As many as 196 critical infrastructure gap projects pertaining to port connectivity, movement of coal, steel and food products have been identified, and the Network Planning Group (NPG) is coordinating with the concerned authorities to fill these gaps, a senior official said on Thursday.

The NPG was constituted under the PM GatiShakti initiative. It has representation from various infrastructure ministries/departments involving their heads of network planning division for unified planning and integration of the proposals.

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The PM GatiShakti plan was announced last year with an aim to break departmental silos and bring in a more holistic and integrated approach for planning and executing projects to address the issues of multi-modal and last-mile connectivity.

This will help bring down the logistics cost and promote efficient planning of infrastructure projects.

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"To enhance the logistics efficiency across sectors, critical infrastructure gaps have been identified," Special Secretary in the Commerce and Industry Ministry Amrit Lal Meena told reporters here.

Citing an example of 87 functional ports, he said a complete audit has been undertaken by all the port authorities and state maritime boards under a joint exercise of the road ministry, shipping ministry and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Officials of these ministries developed a comprehensive port connectivity plan for faster clearance of cargoes, he added.

Critical gaps in infrastructure in terms of road or rail have been identified and the information was shared with concerned authorities.

User ministries are undertaking infrastructure audits to identify critical last and first mile infrastructure gaps, that is projects for improving multi-modal connectivity and capacity augmentation.

These projects will be taken up by concerned ministries to complete the missing links.

Meena also said in the last 11 months, over 1,300 issues listed on the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) portal which were affecting the implementation of different infrastructure projects have been resolved.

Out of these 1,300 issues, 40 per cent related to land acquisition, and 25-35 per cent to environment and forest clearances, among others.

Based on recommendations of the NPG, respective commodity flows and trade volumes, user ministries are also conducting complete audit of trunk infrastructure, logistics assets and utility network to identify project needs and develop a comprehensive multi-modal connectivity plan.

More than 900 data layers of concerned central ministries/departments have been uploaded on the National Master Plan. Over 650 essential layers have been integrated by the states/UTs onto the plan.

Meena added that ministries and departments have started sharing proposals for examination by NPG.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)