India’s infrastructure planning framework under PM GatiShakti has reached a significant milestone, with the Network Planning Group (NPG) evaluating 396 infrastructure projects with a combined estimated cost of around ₹18.66 lakh crore. Of these, 256 projects have been sanctioned, while 198 are currently under implementation, highlighting the scale of infrastructure development being coordinated through the integrated planning mechanism.
The projects span several critical sectors, including roads, railways, ports and waterways, power, petroleum and natural gas, civil aviation, telecommunications and industrial corridors. The NPG evaluates projects at the planning stage to improve multimodal connectivity, coordinate infrastructure development across departments and strengthen last-mile links.
Launched in October 2021, PM GatiShakti was designed as a whole-of-government approach to infrastructure planning. It brings together data from different ministries, departments and states through a geospatial platform, enabling planners to examine proposed projects alongside existing and planned infrastructure before taking decisions.
The framework is intended to address a longstanding challenge in infrastructure development: individual projects being planned in isolation. By examining road, rail, port, power and other infrastructure requirements together, the system seeks to improve coordination and minimise gaps between different modes of transportation and economic infrastructure.
The NPG plays a central role in this process. Its assessment focuses on factors such as multimodality, inter-modality, synchronisation of efforts, last-mile connectivity and comprehensive development around project locations. The objective is to ensure that infrastructure investments deliver stronger network-level benefits rather than functioning as disconnected assets.
The scale of projects evaluated through the mechanism also reflects the government’s continuing emphasis on infrastructure-led economic expansion. Large investments in transport and logistics infrastructure can improve the movement of goods, reduce bottlenecks and strengthen connections between manufacturing centres, markets, ports and consumption hubs.
PM GatiShakti has also expanded significantly in terms of institutional participation. All 36 States and Union Territories and 58 Central Ministries and Departments have been onboarded onto the National Master Plan platform. Around 1,800 data layers have been integrated, supported by more than 65 software modules and over 100 mobile and web applications for planning and analysis.
With nearly ₹18.66 lakh crore worth of projects evaluated and almost 200 projects already under implementation, PM GatiShakti is increasingly becoming an important layer in India’s infrastructure decision-making architecture. Its longer-term significance will depend on how effectively integrated planning translates into faster execution, stronger multimodal networks and lower logistics friction across the economy.