Govt prioritizes 18 road projects under Gati Shakti

In the fiscal year 2023-24, the government in line with Prime Minister Gati Shakti-National Master Plan, has prioritized and fast-tracked as many as 18 critical road infrastructure projects to be completed in the next two years. The Centre is eyeing 67 critical road projects that would result not only in integrated infrastructure development but also improvement of logistics across the nation. One out of these 67 projects has already been completed, while four are under implementation, and the remainder 62 projects are under development. The government is looking to award these projects by 2024-25. As many as three projects are likely to be awarded in the current fiscal year, 18 in FY23 and 41 projects in 2024-25. The industry department has also asked infrastructure wings to get critical infrastructure-gap projects approved. To identify critical last-mile and first-mile connectivity gaps, the PM Gati Shakti Plan was announced in October 2021. Spearheaded by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Gati Shakti NLP is an integrated plan for providing multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic and social nodes. The idea was to integrate infrastructure data from key infrastructure ministries -railways, road transport, ports & waterways, and civil aviation, among others, for integrated planning, monitoring, and reviewing of projects.