'We introduced 'gati' in development projects': Narendra Modi launches Rs 100 lakh crore Gati Shakti Plan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched the highly-spoken of PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity at Pragati Maidan in the national capital.Highlighting the importance of the plan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan is going to take India's self-confidence, self-confidence, to the resolve of self-reliance. This National Masterplan will give impetus to 21st century India."He said that the plan is centred on the people of India, the industry of India and the farmers of the nation. "It will give new energy to the present and future generations of India to build India of 21st century, remove the obstacles in their path."The prime minister also stressed that the mega plan would put infrastructure, which has been far from the priority of most political parties, as the main focus.Speaking of delayed projects, he said: "Earlier, we used to see 'work in progress' boards everywhere and people started to believe that it will never be completed. It showed distrust of people. But we changed it. We planned well and introduced 'gati' in development projects."He did not waste the opportunity to jibe at the Opposition, saying, "Now the situation has come that some political parties have started criticising the construction of necessary infrastructure for the country."Prime Minister Modi in his speech said that the Gati Shakti Plan reflects his government’s ‘holistic governance’. "The PM Gati shakti Master Plan not only brings together the government process and its various stakeholders, it also helps to integrate different modes of transportation,” he said at the event. He highlighted how his government has given boost to infrastructure projects in the country. For instance, he said that in the last seven years, his government has doubled more than 9,000 km of railway lines. Similarly, before 2014 only 60 panchayats could be connected with optical fibre. But in the last seven years, more than 1.5 lakh gram panchayats have been connected with optical fibre. Moreover, before 2014, metros were running on only about 250 km of track. However, today the metro has been expanded across 700 km and work is ongoing to move than to 1,000 km. Modi also said that in order to increase the income of farmers and fishermen of the nation, the two mega parks, which were built before 2014, has now increased to 19 mega food park. "The target is now to make it more than 40," he added. Gati Shakti — a digital platform — will bring 16 ministries, including Railways, Roads and Highways, Petroleum and Gas, Power, Telecom, Shipping, Aviation and user departments like ones that build industrial parks together for the planning of all infrastructure connectivity projects till 2025. PM Gati Shakti is the result of the prime minister's constant endeavour to build Next Generation infrastructure, which will improve ease of living as well as ease of doing business.The plan is an important part of Prime Minister Modi's ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-dependent India) vision and ambitiously aims to lend more power and speed to projects under the National Infrastructure Pipeline and boost the goal of achieving a $5-trillion economy, especially in wake of the recent economic impacts of the coronavirus disease pandemic.Earlier at the event, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said, "PM GatiShakti-National Master Plan will give a push and direction to various development plans and will also encourage investments. Under the leadership of PM Modi, the G20 summit will be held here in 2023 for the first time."Many corporate honchos, present at the event, lauded the plan, saying it would add to manufacturing competitiveness and boost employment in the country.Earlier, Prime Minister Modi reviewed the model of the new exhibition complex at Pragati Maidan, before launching the plan with the press of a remote button. The ambitious plan envisages a centralised portal to unite the infrastructural initiatives planned and initiated by as many as 16 central ministries and departments.With inputs from agencies