The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Thursday that the Ministry of Road Transport had completed 1,41,190 km of national highways by March 31 this year out of the target of 2 Lakh km for 2024-25. Likewise, the Ministry of Petroleum has completed laying 20,000 km of gas pipelines within 34,500 km for the same period. The Ministry of Power has surpassed the target of applying 4,54,200 km of transmission network by March 2022.

The Ministerial-based progress of such projects was discussed at a review meeting on 13 April PM GatiShakti. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goel chaired it. “During a presentation given by the Special Secretary, Logistics Division, DPIIT (Department for Expansion of Industry and Internal Trade), the ministry-wise progress on the targets set under the Prime Minister’s Momentum was discussed. As of March 31, 2022, 1,41,190 km of national highways have been completed,” he said.

The Department of Telecommunications has built 33,00,997 km of OFC (Optical Fiber Cable) network by March 31, 2022, against the target of 50,00,000 km in 2024-25. It added that an Integrated Multimodal Network Planning Group (NPG) had been activated with various connectivity ministry/departmental representations, including the heads of their network planning departments, to plan and consolidate proposals and assist the empowered group of secretaries.

“States have been onboarded, and institutional set-ups have been formed in the states to streamline and demonstrate the concept of PM GatiShakti,” the ministry said. Groups of empowered secretaries have been formed in 25 states, NPGs is operational in nine states, and technical assistance units have been set up in six states.
“It also illustrates the benefits and practical impact of PM GatiShakti’s national master planning portal. Various ministries/departments and state governments have started using the portal to consolidate and synchronise implementation efforts, optimising cost and time in the planning phase of infrastructure projects,” it said.

The meeting was attended by V K Tripathi, Chairman of the Railway Authority; Sanjeev Ranjan, Secretary of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways; Rajiv Bansal, Minister of Civil Aviation; Anurag Jain, Secretary of DPIIT and all other senior officials of the infrastructure sector.