The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), recently assessed the progress made by union territory of Jammu and Kashmir under the Prime Minister Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) in Srinagar.
Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary, DPIIT, highlighted the substantial focus on infrastructure planning through the PM Gati Shakti initiative and mentioned that the central-level Network Planning Group has assessed three projects for Jammu and Kashmir, as reported by Greater Kashmir.
These projects are — the Gurdaspur-Jammu-Srinagar-Natural Gas Pipeline, Samba-Mansar-Udhampur (with a link to Domel), and Green Energy Corridor Phase-II: Inter-State Transmission System for 13 GW renewable energy projects in Ladakh.
Recognising the unique advantages of the union territory, Dawra encouraged the department to utilise the PM Gati Shakti Portal for infrastructure and social sector planning — for ensuring all-weather road and power connectivity to schools, Anganwadi centers, hospitals, and road connectivity to horticulture clusters.
Further, Vikramjit Singh, Administrative Secretary for Industry and Commerce, provided updates on the implementation of PM GatiShakti in Jammu and Kashmir.
He mentioned that the union territory has uploaded more than 300 data layers and has brought 37 departments on board. Additionally, measures have been taken to maintain data quality and standardisation.
Through the union territory Gati Shakti master portal, plans are being made for various industrial estates in Jammu and Kashmir, such as Kartholi, Bari Brahmana, Sahar Logate (Jammu Division), and Medicity Bemina in Srinagar (Kashmir Division).
The region is also identifying charging stations for electric vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir using the spatial data available on the portal.
After two years of the PM GatiShakti NMP, substantial progress has been made in its adoption for multimodal infrastructure planning by ministries and states/union territories.
Currently, 39 central government departments/ministries, all 28 states, and eight union territories have been integrated into the Gati Shakti-NMP. They are using GIS data layers to plan their infrastructure projects.