Gati Shakti Plan and its Impact on the Construction Sector
The socio-economic impacts of a good backbone of infrastructure can develop countries and increase the standard of living for its citizens. India has tried to build an end-to-end transportation system, where roads merge into railway lines, and railway lines merge into ports but there is still a lot of groundwork and coordinated planning needed to achieve a seamless transportation network. This is where the Gati Shakti Plan comes in.
The Gati Shakti Plan is an initiative launched by the prime minister of India. It will serve as a multimodal national master plan for seamless connectivity among the different transportation systems in India. It plans to integrate roadways, railways, special economic zones, and many more ministries to form a network of transport that is used not just for the movement of goods but also for people.
The plan recognizes and is cognisant of the problems that India faces with construction and infrastructural development. From time consuming project approval processes, to uncoordinated departments in different construction agencies to innumerable regulatory clearance issues - this national master plan strives to troubleshoot these issues head on with coordinated planning.
The Gati Shakti Plan has 6 pillars that it runs on, mainly: Comprehensiveness: Every department will be privy to each other’s plans so as to be more efficient and provide important data during the implementation of said plans.
Prioritization: The knowledge of the inner workings of each department will help them prioritize their activity.
Optimization: This initiative will help ministers choose the most optimal plan in order to carry out projects.
Synchronization: Full visibility and coordination will be prioritized in order to maintain synchronicity between the departments.
Analytical: Using high end tech like spatial planning tools will create one place to provide all data crucial to each ministry and departments planning, so that it can be easily analyzed by each department.
Dynamic: All departments can now review, track and monitor the growth of each other’s projects as it is happening. There will be satellite imagery provided to get a deeper look into the cross-sectoral projects being done.
The Gati Shakti Plan will have a deep impact on the construction sector by designing and intending to shatter departmental silos and promote a holistic approach to the construction and building landscape of India. Construction equipment manufacturers and agencies will be provided with ample opportunities to grow because of the opportunities created by this plan, a few of them are:
- 20 new mega food parks
- Roadway networks to be increased to reach the 2 lakh km mark under the Bharatmala programme
- 200 new airports, water aerodromes, heliports to be constructed
