Social sector infrastructure to be part of PM GakiShakti plan: DPIIT secretary
Jan 31, 2024
New Delhi [India], January 31 : DPIIT secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh has said that the government is now planning to cover not just infrastructure but also social sectors, including hospitals, Anganwadi, schools, and colleges, among others.
This, he said, would optimise and ensure a data-based decision-making process for building any new infrastructure in the social sector.
Addressing the 'PM GatiShakti Summit', organised by industry body FICCI, jointly with DPIIT under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Singh stated that the strong growth is propelled by strong political leadership, robust macroeconomic management, and unparalleled investment in public infrastructure.
The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan is an approach that enables integrated and synchronised implementation of projects.
It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 13, 2021, with a vision to break departmental silos in government and institutionalize holistic planning for stakeholders across major infrastructure projects.
"PM GatiShakti ensures that we do pro-active planning rather than reactive planning. We have to ensure that last-mile connectivity is planned in advance," he said, as per a release issued by FICCI.
"We are now also trying to focus on not only network planning and social infrastructure but area planning as well. The idea is to ensure having a saturation coverage and planning of infrastructure for the entire hinterland which is linked to investment. We plan to roll-out this initiative at all districts across the country and all District Collectors will have access to the data which will empower them to plan better for their respective jurisdiction," he added.
While highlighting the potential of the PM GatiShakti National Masterplan, the secretary said India, in the business-as-usual scenario, can add USD 0.75 trillion to GDP every two years.
"As a result, we expect India to reach USD 5 trillion by the end of 2025 and USD 7 trillion by 2030 and become the world's 3rd largest economy," he added.
India, currently, is the world's fifth-largest economy, with an estimated GDP of about USD 3.7 trillion.
Highlighting the transformation in Indian infrastructure, the DPIIT Secretary noted that in the last nine years, national highway growth registered 1.6x: a 2x increase in port handling capacity, a 2x increase in the number of airports, 111 new waterways and the expansion of rail networks.
"These factors are also reflected in our logistics cost estimates. Our current logistic cost has come down to 8-9 per cent of GDP as compared to earlier estimates of 14 per cent," he noted.
As part of India's commitment to the Global South, Secretary Singh also stated that the government was working to showcase and share the PM GatiShakti National Masterplan, free of cost, to a few of the neighbouring countries and the countries in the Global South.
