Road transport makes significant progress under Gati Shakti plan, claims MoRTH

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) on Tuesday has said that it has made significant progress under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, which aims at improving multi-modal connectivity and last-mile connectivity across India.

The Gati Shakti is a digital platform that has been developed to bring 16 different ministries, including railways and roadways together in order to integrate planning and coordinate implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects for industrial clusters and economic nodes around the country.

MoRTH has said that under this plan, it plans to develop 22 greenfield expressways, 23 other key infrastructure projects and other highway projects. Also, it aims to build 35 multi-modal logistics parks (MMLPs), as part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana and other schemes of the ministry.

Some of the major Expressways and Corridors under construction currently include Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway, Ambala-Kotputli Expressway, among others, the ministry has said in a statement.

It also said that some of the major key infrastructure projects under construction currently include Zojila Tunnel in Ladakh, roads to connect Krishnapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh, a major bridge over Middle Strait Creek in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, two-lane expansion of Lalpul-Manmao changing road in Arunachal Pradesh, among others.

The ministry has been implementing these projects through its agencies such as NHAI, NHLML and NHIDCL. It also claims that these agencies have kept pace with the work of implementing the 35 MMLP projects identified for development under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase I.

The Union Budget 2022 has specially emphasised on boosting infrastructure investment, which is expected to help the demand in the auto sector to grow alongside boosting connectivity around the country.