Patna, Oct 17 (PTI) Bihar Industries and Tourism Minister Nitish Mishra on Thursday urged officials to leverage the ‘PM GatiShakti’ (PMGS) national master plan for project planning and decision-making, asserting that this approach will help attract investments.
Addressing the PMGS Eastern Zone district-level capacity building workshop, Mishra said, “I urge officers from various state departments and districts to utilise the PMGS national master plan for project planning and data-driven decision-making.” Mishra stressed the importance of collaboration among stakeholders to achieve the vision of a Viksit Bharat (Developed India) by 2047.
This workshop, the fourth district-level event held in Patna (Zone), brought together over 100 participants from central ministries, state governments, and district-level officials covering 44 districts from Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
The attendees represented various departments, including planning, industries, education, forests, zila parishad, aspirational blocks, panchayats, revenue, water, and land.
The PMGS national master plan was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 13, 2021, to facilitate integrated multimodal connectivity using indigenous technology.
Its framework includes an inter-ministerial mechanism at both the central and state levels, along with a GIS-based decision support system, enhancing infrastructure planning and development across the country.
To promote the implementation of PMGS at the district/local level, the logistics division, with technical support from the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), is organising a series of six pan-India district-level workshops.
E. Srinivas, joint secretary of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, emphasised that the PMGS master plan has become the cornerstone of the nation’s growth, aligning perfectly with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision.
“Three years since its launch on October 13, 2021, the Network Planning Group (NPG) has evaluated several projects that will either be located in Bihar or pass through the state,” he added.
Additionally, the Integrated Manufacturing Cluster (IMC) at Gaya, under the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC) Project, has been evaluated and is expected to significantly contribute to Gaya’s development, he said.
Bandana Preyashi, secretary of the department of industries (Bihar), highlighted the benefits of the PMGS national master plan, saying, “The portal has the potential to streamline clearance processes, such as those for forest and land, leading to improvements in ease of doing business (EoDB), ease of living, and administrative efficiency.” District collectors also pointed out potential areas for infrastructure and social sector development using the portal.
Examples of potential use cases include identifying suitable sites for industrial clusters and multimodal connectivity, finding appropriate land parcels near National Highway Manihari for developing makhana and maize processing units and planning a food hub in Katihar, Bihar.
Earlier, workshops were also held in central, western, and southern zones in Bhopal (January 18, 2024), Pune (February 9, 2024), and Thiruvananthapuram (August 13, 2024). PTI PKD MNB
