Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has launched a district master plan as part of the PM GatiShakti initiative for infrastructure planning in 27 aspirational districts across the country. The initiative includes a national master plan portal to aid in the efficient planning and implementation of infrastructure projects.
Goyal has announced plans to expand the district master plan to encompass more than 750 districts nationwide within the next 18 months. Additionally, he unveiled guidelines for developing logistics plans to assist cities in customizing their logistics planning.
PM GatiShakti is being touted as India’s contribution to future infrastructure planning, utilizing over 1,600 layers of data from central and state levels for quicker, improved, and cost-effective infrastructure planning. Goyal stated, “This technology will likely be adopted globally for infrastructure planning in the years ahead,” expressing confidence that India’s infrastructure projects will garner trust from urban planners, architects, engineers, and international organizations that frequently fund such projects.
All data within the PM GatiShakti platform is thoroughly validated and subject to periodic updates. The portal, developed by Gujarat-based BISAG-N (Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics), is a GIS-enabled platform designed to streamline government budgets and enhance the efficiency of infrastructure development through data-driven decision-making processes.