The 57th Network Planning Group (NPG) meeting was held yesterday, under the chairpersonship of Special Secretary (Logistics), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Smt. Sumita Dawra in New Delhi. The meeting saw active participation from member Departments and Ministries, viz. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Department of Telecommunications and NITI Aayog. Additionally, project-state nodal officers also joined the meeting and shared their views.

In its 57th meeting, NPG assessed four projects including three projects of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and one project of Ministry of Railways (MoR), with the total project cost of Rs. 19,520.77 Crore. This takes the total number of projects assessed by NPG to 115 with a total value of about Rs 11.70 Lakh Crore, since the launch of PM GatiShakti approach.

The NPG assessed three road projects in the meeting. The first project in the state of Bihar was the 4-Lane Greenfield Highway for Parsarma to Araria (NH-327E).  The road development would benefit traffic originating from Supaul, Madhepura, Araria, Madhubani, Darbhanga, and Saharsa districts. The road will provide an alternative option to the East-West Corridor from the point of view of national security and for various trade activities, such as the transportation of grains like bamboo, makhana, maize, rice, etc. Additionally, there is high potential for agro-based industries, jute and plywood industries, and fish farming in Supaul and Araria districts, which will be benefited from this road project.

The second road project discussed in the meeting was widening & upgradation to two lanes with paved shoulders road from Tamenglong to Mahur (NH-137) in the State of Assam and has a total length of 19.7 km. The project corridor will facilitate intermodal transport from Mahur & Khongsang Railway Station and Silchar airport. Additionally, the project will serve two tribal districts and is expected to contribute to its socio-economic development. The project will also improve the connectivity to Multimodal Logistics Park (MMLP) in the region and industrial units along the stretch.

The NPG also discussed a road project located in the state of West Bengal. The project section starts from Dhupguri and passes through Falakata and terminates at Salsalabari. The project road is part of the East-West Corridor joining Porbandar in the west to Silchar in the east. The project is expected to reduce the distance by 25 km between Dhupguri and Salsalabari as compared to existing roads. The road is also expected to improve the connectivity to the North-Eastern part of the country.

Further, the NPG discussed one railway project, which involves doubling the line between Sabarmati to Sarkhej and a new BG double line from Sarkhej to Dholera (DSIR) in the state of Gujarat. The project involves construction of a spur line for Lothal National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) & Dholera airport as well. This project would help in developing the DSIR as a new economic region in Gujarat. The entire project is Greenfield in nature. This railway line in conjunction with the expressway will provide much needed development and connectivity to drive the development of agriculture, trade, and transportation. Additionally, this project will push the Government’s initiative of “vocal for local” by boosting small scale industries. This project will benefit Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), which is planned as a Special Investment Region in which huge amounts of investment and economic activities are expected to happen.

During the meeting, the Special Secretary congratulated everyone on completion of two years of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP). The Special Secretary highlighted that till date, the NPG has evaluated 112 projects worth Rs. 11.53 lakh Crore. This initiative has helped in streamlining the infrastructure project planning by bringing all Ministries/Departments together for better coordination and enabled them to utilize the power of Information Technology in informed decision making. The NMP portal has helped the Ministries/Departments in speedy identification of required approvals and obtaining clearances and removing bottlenecks. The Special Secretary emphasized that one of the important advantages of NMP was that it has helped in effective integration of all modes of transportation, which is one of the aims of PM GatiShakti.  

During the meeting, the Ministry of Railways (MoR) explained its High-Density Traffic Network Corridor Program. The aim of this program is to increase the modal share of Railways to the level of 35% and increase its capacity to 3000 MT by 2031. MoR has identified high traffic density routes along with feeder routes and will work towards capacity augmentations of these routes.

The meeting also saw special emphasis on adoption of Area Development Approach in infrastructure project planning, which will ensure overall socio-economic development in the region. Special emphasis was also placed on effective and intelligent integration of projects with other existing/upcoming infrastructure projects to improve multi-modality in the region and follow the whole of the Government Approach. 

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