I&C to monitor progress on regular basis, furnish report
Scheme to be utilized in decision making: CS
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 10: Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has directed all the departments to fast pace implementation of PM Gati-Shakti Scheme as till date no substantial progress has been made although the issue will be deliberated upon in the conference of the Chief Secretaries to be held in October-November this year.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in a high-level meeting held few days back, the implementation of PM Gati-Shakti Scheme came up for discussion and the Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, who was chairing the meeting, noticed less than optimal performance with respect to PM Gati-Shakti.
While issuing directions to all the Administrative Departments to fast-pace the implementation of the scheme, the Chief Secretary asked the Commissioner/Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department to monitor progress so that Gati-Shakti can be utilized in decision making, sources said, adding the Commissioner/ Secretary Industries has also been asked to furnish report in this regard on regular basis to the office of the Chief Secretary.
“Implementation of PM Gati-Shakti Scheme will also be one of the agenda points in the Chief Secretaries Conference to be held in October-November this year and will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”, sources said, adding “the Government of J&K UT wants all the departments to make substantial progress in implementation of scheme well before the conference where a presentation in this regard will be made”.
Moreover, the Chief Secretary has directed all the Administrative Secretaries to have the necessary preparations in place for the upcoming conference the theme of which will be “Priority Area for Highest Attention and Leadership (CSC-PAHAL).
The Gati Shakti also called as National Master Plan was launched on August 15, 2021 by the Prime Minister for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects across the country.
“The infrastructure creation domain had several inherent weaknesses. Traditionally, there is lack of coordination between different departments. For example, once a road is constructed, other agencies dig up the constructed road again for activities like laying of underground cables and pipes etc. This not only causes great inconvenience but also leads to wasteful expenditure”, sources said, adding “individual departments often work in silos leading to poor planning and execution, which ultimately leads to delays in the projects. This is where the Gati Shakti Scheme hopes to bring a positive change”.
They further said that PM Gati-Shakti will provide the entire data at one place with GIS-based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility to the executing agency. Moreover, the scheme will help departments plan cross sectoral projects better, monitor the implementation, review the progress and make course corrections, if necessary since all the information will be available on the portal through satellite imagery.
There are six pillars of Gati-Shakti—-comprehensiveness, prioritization, optimization, synchronization, analytical and dynamic. Each and every department will have visibility of each other’s activities providing critical data while planning and execution of projects in a comprehensive manner. Moreover, through this different departments will be able to prioritize their projects cross-sectoral interactions.
The Government of J&K vide Order No. 573-dated 18.05.2022 issued by General Administration Department constituted the Group of Committees for implementation of Master Plan of Prime Minister’s Gati-Shakti Programme. These groups are Empowered Group of Secretaries, Network Planning Group and Technical Support Units (TSUs) for Jammu/Kashmir Divisions.
The Empowered Group of Secretaries has been assigned the task to review and monitor implementation of the plan to ascertain the logistics efficiency accruing thereof and adopting framework and norms for undertaking any amendments in the plan; to coordinate for any changes in the project already included in the plan within the prescribed framework and norms and to set out a procedure and 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.
Similarly, Network Planning Group is supposed to share specific Action Plans for 2020-21 to 2024-25 with each other for facilitating integration of networks, enhance optimization through modification/ expansion/ new network creation to avoid duplication of works for holistic development of any region as well as reducing logistic costs through micro-plan detailing etc.
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