RATTAN SHARMA
JAMMU : The Government has decided to speed up the process for effective and smooth implementation of the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti Programme in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
In this regard, Industries and Commerce Department shall be the Nodal Department and Administrative Secretary, I&C shall be the UT Level Nodal Officer for effective implementation of PM Gati Shakti UT Master Plan.
Administrative Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department shall head the Network Planning Group (NPG) constituted in terms of Government Order No. 573-JK(GAD) of 2022 dated 18.05.2022, instead of Administrative Secretary, Planning Development and Monitoring Department, who shall be a member.
An Officer (not below the rank of Additional Secretary) of Industries and Commerce Department, shall be the Member Secretary of Network Planning Group (NPG).
On May 18 this year, the Government had ordered Chief Secretary-led Empowered Group of Secretaries (EgoS) with the assistance of Network Planning Group and Technical Support Units (TSUs) will implement the Master Plan of Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti Programme in the Union Territory of J&K.
On May 18, 2022, a 15-member Empowered Group of Secretaries, as per its terms of reference, was asked to review and monitor implementation of the Master Plan to ascertain the logistics efficiency accruing thereof and adopting framework and norms for undertaking any amendments in it (plan). It was also asked to coordinate for any changes in the project already included in the Plan within the prescribed framework and norms.
Empowered Group of Secretaries was also asked to set out a procedure and a definitive time frame for synchronization of various activities for construction of roads, rail etc along with all utility services in an area-based approach for development of infrastructure on pilot basis. This will also align various initiatives on development of a common integrated portal which serves the needs of all stakeholders.
Further, Empowered Group of Secretaries was also directed to issue appropriate directions for achieving the objectives and for compliance to guiding principles of the PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) and in addressing demand side requirements of the concerned department.
These group was entrusted with responsibility for sharing their (departments’) specific Action Plans for 2020-21 to 2024-25 with each other (department) for facilitating integration of networks, enhance optimization through modification, expansion or new network creation to avoid duplication of works for holistic development of any region as well as reducing logistic costs through micro-plan detailing.
After examining all the interventions proposed to be taken by various departments, the NPG will delineate all projects where synchronization of efforts are required and propose any changes in the PM Gati Shakti NMP for consideration and approval of the EGoS. The representatives of the concerned department will be responsible to ensure that the date inputs of the progress pertaining to their respective departments have been correctly mapped in the PM Gati Shakti NMP.
It is to be noted here that Prime Minister in October last year launched PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity, essentially a digital platform to bring 16 Ministries including Railways and Roadways together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure projects.
The initiative has six basic pillars, including comprehensiveness, which will include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralized portal. The same, officials said, will pave a way for every Department to have visibility of each other’s activities providing critical data while planning & comprehensively executing projects.
Under the second pillar, prioritization, different Departments will be able to prioritize their projects through cross-sectoral interactions, while under the pillar of optimization; the National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after the identification of critical gaps.
Concerning synchronization, which forms another basic pillar of the initiative, the departments and Ministries will get to have more coordination and synchronization as well as different layers of governance by ensuring sync of work between them.
Under the initiative, entire data will remain available in one place with GIS-based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility to the executing agency.
With the help of PM Gati Shakti, all Ministries and Departments will be able to visualize, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects, through the GIS platform, as the satellite imagery will give on-ground progress periodically and the progress of the projects will be updated regularly on the portal. The same, officials said, will help in identifying the interventions for enhancing and updating the national master plan.