'Taxpayers’ money wasted in past, no longer': PM launches Rs 100 lakh cr Gati Shakti plan to boost infra

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 13

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched Rs 100 lakh crore Gati Shakti National Master Plan to boost Indian infrastructure and multi-modal connectivity over the next 25 years and reduce logistics cost for improved global competitiveness.

Noting that taxpayers’ money was wasted in the past by way of delayed projects and lack of inter-departmental coordination, the PM said the government was now nurturing a work culture of completing projects “in time and ahead of time by bringing departments together”.

“Over the years, the signage –work in progress — became a symbol of distrust in the government. People reconciled to prolonged delays in infra projects. Today, 21st century India is leaving behind old practices. The Gati Shakti Plan will give impetus to 21st century India and remove obstacles from its path,” said the PM lamenting that infrastructure was never a political priority in India.

He said the subject of infrastructure was not even visible in political party manifestos.

“Today some parties are criticising the development of infrastructure necessary for the development of the country even though it is globally accepted that building quality infrastructure is the only route to sustainable development which also boosts economic activity and creates large scale jobs,” the PM said adding that India was today working at a much faster speed than ever.

Citing a study showing logistics cost in India at 13 pc of the GDP, the PM said Gati Shakti Plan would reduce these costs and lay the foundation for a self-reliant India over the next 25 years.  He said people, industry, manufacturers and farmers were at the heart of the Plan, which will bring government departments on one platform, enhancing efficiency.

“Gaps between macro planning and micro implementation, lack of coordination between departments and advance information to the industry, an approach of working in silos were all hampering infrastructure development and leading to budget wastage. Such an approach dissipated energies instead of harnessing them. The new plan will change this and lead to optimum utilisation of resources,” said the PM citing the greater progress made under NDA-2 compared to the past 70 years.

He said work was now underway to double farmers’ incomes.

“In 2014, there were only two Mega Food Parks in the country. Today 19 are functioning and the target is to have 40 in all. There were five waterways in 2014, today we have 13. Turnaround time of vessels at ports has reduced to 27 hours today as against 41 hours in 2014,” said the PM.