The 55th Network Planning Group (NPG) meeting, under the chairpersonship of Special Secretary, Logistics, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Smt. Sumita Dawra at New Delhi, recommends six infrastructure projects.
More Details:
- The 55th Network Planning Group (NPG) meeting, under the chairpersonship of Special Secretary, Logistics, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Smt. Sumita Dawra at New Delhi.
- During the meeting, six projects including three projects of the Ministry of Railways (MoR) and three projects of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), with a total project cost of Rs. 14,081 Crore were assessed. This takes the total number of projects assessed by NPG to 106 with a total value of about Rs 11 Lakh Crore, since the launch of PM Gati Shakti approach.
- The meeting saw active participation from member Departments and Ministries, viz. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Department of Telecommunications and NITI Aayog.
- The Special Secretary highlighted that the adoption of a ‘whole-of-government’ approach has added a new dimension to project planning and implementation, breaking the silos among various Ministries and Departments for expeditious delivery of projects.
- Various benefits of PM Gati Shakti plan were also highlighted during the meeting, such as digital surveys on NMP, reduction in time taken for DPR preparation, efficient project governance through tech-enabled platforms, and comprehensive planning for infrastructure and social sector assets, which are yielding results.
- In its 55th meeting, the NPG assessed three railway line projects with the total project cost of Rs. 5374.5 Crore. One Greenfield railway line project alignment passes through West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand while another Greenfield railway line is located in Odisha, which will be an alternate and shorter alignment to existing railway line and shall help in decongestion of existing track.
- The third railway line is located in Gujarat State. These railway lines are expected to benefit the Steel, Cement and Power industries by easing the transportation of Coal, Limestone, Iron Ore and finished products, such as Iron & Steel, Cement etc., apart from benefitting the passenger transportation.
- These railway projects are also expected to reduce the overall logistics cost by providing shorter routes and reducing the traffic congestion on existing railway lines.
- The Special Secretary highlighted that keeping in view the guiding principles of PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, these projects would provide multimodal connectivity for socio-economic development enabling area development and decongest the existing city and rail infrastructure.
Source: PIB- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): DFCCIL
