Five infrastructure projects focusing on roads and railways have received recommendations for approval under the PM GatiShakti initiative, according to the commerce and industry ministry’s announcement on Friday. These projects underwent assessment during the 65th Network Planning Group (NPG) meeting.
The NPG evaluated the projects through the lens of integrated planning, aligning with PM GatiShakti principles. The examination involved scrutiny of project details against the planning and mapping on the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP).
Among the projects considered were highway initiatives in Goa, Meghalaya, and Assam; the construction of a rail-over-rail bulb line in Bihar; and urban metro transit projects in Bengaluru and Delhi/NCR.
The inter-ministerial NPG convenes biweekly to assess infrastructure projects, emphasizing multi-modality, synchronization of efforts, and comprehensive development in and around the project locations.
PM GatiShakti, launched to create an integrated infrastructure to reduce logistics costs, mandates that all logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects with investments exceeding Rs 500 crore go through the NPG. Approval from the NPG is a prerequisite before project clearance by the Public Investment Board (PIB) or the Department of Expenditure under the finance ministry.
The majority of projects recommended by the group are centered on roads, railways, and urban development.