According to officials privy to the development, the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan may first be offered to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, for the planning and execution of certain cross-border infrastructure projects. Later a separate product will be developed for other overseas projects, based on the framework developed for domestic projects.
The officials cited above said countries looking to adopt the system may also get limited access to the PM Gati Shakti portal to see how projects go from the drawing board to execution.
“We are already showcasing the Gati Shakti Master Plan to other countries. In the neighbourhood, we had delegation-level visits to Nepal and also showcased the master plan to Bangladesh at the invitation of the government there. We have also showcased the tool to 30 countries in Central Asia and South East Asia,” DPIIT special secretary Sumita Dawra said.
The tool was also showcased at the recently concluded UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP) conference in Hong Kong, at the Asia Pacific Business Forum, and at the recent G20 meeting in Delhi, Dawra said.
“A lot of interest has been generated, even from private companies, as they also need clearances and want their governments to adopt such geo-spatial technologies that can help speed up projects,” the senior official said.
The PMGS-NMP has also digitised land records of 13 states and four union territories. The programme will reduce the time and cost of implementing projects as it provides easy access to this data to stakeholders. Digital land records are 249 data layers under the programme.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier asked Niti Aayog to map various infra projects in the country, including industrial corridors, freight corridors, PM Mitra Parks, and defense corridors to bring them under the PM Gati Shakti Scheme for optimum use of resources.
The details of sharing PM Gati Shakti are yet to be worked out. It may involve adopting country-specific versions of the tool itself, or developing similar ones in each country. The plan is to first offer the tool to countries where India is already executing projects.
The international service may also involve mapping data from other countries on the platform and then planning projects or giving limited access to other countries to use the tool to plan projects themselves.
The PMGS-NMP also integrates economic and infrastructural planning with socio-economic development. To complement it, the National Logistics Policy was launched on 17 September 2022 to address the soft infrastructure and the logistics sector. The government has also set up the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya at Vadodara, aiming to create best-in-class manpower and talent for the transportation and logistics sectors.
