PM Gatishakti master plan monitors big infra projects worth Rs 18.66 lakh crore

New Delhi: As many as 396 big-ticket infrastructure projects in the country involving a total investment of Rs 18.66 lakh crore have been taken up under the PM Gatishakti National Master Plan, as on August 11, 2026, according to a government factsheet released on Monday.

Of these, 256 projects have been sanctioned, of which 198 are under implementation. The institutional framework is supported by a digital platform that provides planners with geospatial data, satellite imagery, and analytical tools.

The PM GatiShakti NMP maps economic, social and logistics nodes alongside multimodal connectivity infrastructure. This brings infrastructure linkages and the surrounding development context into the planning process. The platform helps identify infrastructure linkages required to support economic zones and development projects, as well as missing connectivity gaps that can affect the seamless movement of people, goods, and services.

Economic zones such as textile and pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, and agri zones are mapped to support integrated infrastructure planning.

For example, in the case of the Khagaria–Purnea corridor in Bihar, the upgraded corridor is planned to connect five PM GatiShakti Economic Nodes, including a textile cluster, mega food parks, and fishing/seafood parks, along with 11 logistics nodes. The planned connectivity is intended to facilitate faster movement of goods and passengers across the region.

India is building infrastructure at a scale that requires coordination across sectors and modes of transport. Roads, railways, ports, airports, waterways, and utilities often intersect across the same regions. Planning these networks together can help in cost and time savings, coordinate projects and use existing infrastructure more efficiently. This created a need for an approach that integrates different infrastructure networks into a common planning framework.

To address this need, the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan was launched on October 13, 2021. It brought data from different ministries, states, and Union Territories onto a common Geographic Information System (GIS)-based platform. PM GatiShakti enables planners to view infrastructure, geographic features, economic zones and other relevant data together, supporting data-driven planning and decision-making for infrastructure projects. Five years on, this approach has grown into a nationwide planning framework.

PM GatiShakti is guided by six principles that seek to make infrastructure planning more integrated, efficient, and coordinated. These include integrated development, multimodal infrastructure, last-mile connectivity, expedited land acquisition, minimised clearances and reduced ecological impact.

The seven infrastructure engines, comprising roads, railways, ports, waterways, airports, mass transport, and logistics infrastructure, form the core sectors of the plan.

The National Master Plan covers 58 Central Ministries and Departments and all 36 states and Union Territories, enabling infrastructure proposals to be planned and assessed across sectors. It brings together infrastructure and geospatial information on a common GIS-based platform, supporting spatial planning and decision-making.

The PM GatiShakti Public platform provides access to 230 approved datasets, enabling site suitability analysis, connectivity mapping, alignment planning and compliance checks. Over 23,493 data layers, as on October 12, bring infrastructure and other relevant information onto the common GIS-based platform.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IANS

[email protected]