Minister of Trade and Industry Piyush Goyal has said Prime Minister GatiShakti’s national master plan is a pioneering initiative and will help accelerate infrastructure projects in the country with better planning and implementation through geospatial maps.
He said Prime Minister GatiShakti will help make infrastructure plans in a better way. It can help to avoid places that can get in the way of infrastructure projects such as forests, water bodies or mountain ranges by spotting them using technology, he said.
“PM GatiShakti is basically a geospatial map of everything in the country, including forests, nature reserves, railway infrastructure, highways, location of various industries… several maps that make up PM GatiShakti. They are connected,” he says.
He spoke Friday night at the annual 2022 Forbes India Leadership Awards (FILA 2022) ceremony in Mumbai.
Goyal said it’s technology at its best “in terms of our ability to plan, implement and monitor projects smarter and better; and also localize industries smarter”.
Prime Minister GatiShakti will speed up the projects and avoid delays due to environmental or other reasons through better and efficient planning, he said.
The minister also said the country recently signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the UAE, the fastest-ever agreement in the world in just 88 days to complete. The country will have such pacts with the UK, Australia and Canada. “Talks with the EU will start soon, talks with Israel are underway,” he said. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) also wants to do business with India, Goyal added.
“All this is happening because they want India in resilient supply chains. They see us as a trusted partner.”
He said that logistics and infrastructure play a very important role in this and that Prime Minister GatiShakti’s national master plan can really help.
Goyal, who also has the textile portfolio, said the government has come up with a project to set up seven mega textile parks, which will be strategically located, to bring the entire ecosystem in one place, reducing logistics costs. “This will help India become more competitive.”
On the Aatmanirbhar Bharat plan, he said the program is not about closing doors; it actually opens them up further. “We want to approach the world from the position of strength. Our start-ups must be world-class. Technology should be the best in the world. We need to be recognized for the opportunity we are bringing to the world.”
On the National Single Window, he said it’s a beta version. “We will incorporate stakeholder feedback. We want ideas to reduce the compliance burden.”
He said: “Grant jobs can be short-lived. The government investing in infrastructure can give a boost to the economy, but the bigger burden will have to be borne by the industry. They will have to look at the investment coming in and the stimulate growth in the country.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Rs 100-lakh-crore national master plan for multimodal connectivity in October that aims to develop infrastructure to reduce logistics costs and boost the economy.
Prime Minister Gati Shakti aims to reduce logistics costs, increase cargo handling capacity and shorten lead time, Modi said during a function to launch the plan. Gati Shakti joins various departments for the coordinated development of projects from road to railway, from aviation to agriculture.
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