PM GatiShakti Turns 5: 396 Projects Worth ₹18.66 Lakh Crore Mapped

On average, each project is worth roughly ₹4,700 crore.

How It Works, Simply

Think of GatiShakti as a shared digital map for everyone who builds infrastructure. Earlier, the roads ministry, railways, ports, power and telecom departments often planned separately, which sometimes led to a newly built road being dug up for a pipeline, or a railway line missing a connection to an industrial zone.

GatiShakti puts data from all these ministries and states on one Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. Planners can see existing roads, rail lines, ports, utilities, forests and economic zones together before deciding where to build.

Six Principles, Seven Engines

An Example: Bihar’s Khagaria–Purnea Corridor

The upgraded corridor is planned to connect five economic nodes, including a textile cluster, mega food parks and fishing parks, along with 11 logistics nodes, to move goods and passengers faster across the region.

Why It Matters: Planning Before Building

Infrastructure delays in India have often come not from a lack of money but from poor coordination, land issues and missing links between projects. By mapping everything in one place, GatiShakti aims to cut duplication, speed up approvals and reduce environmental damage.

Its success, however, will ultimately be judged on the ground. With about half the listed projects under implementation, the next few years will show whether better planning translates into faster completion and lower costs.

Open Data for Businesses

The GatiShakti public platform offers 230 approved datasets, which businesses and planners can use for site selection, connectivity mapping and compliance checks, making it a useful tool beyond government.

The Bottom Line

Five years on, GatiShakti has become the planning backbone for some of India’s biggest projects. The real test now is turning digital maps into finished roads, railways and ports, on time.

With inputs from IANS.