'Gati Shakti' to give new direction to infra planning, reduce project costs: PM

New Delhi, Feb 28:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that infrastructure planning, implementation and monitoring will get a new direction under 'PM Gati-Shakti' programme.

Accordingly, 'PM Gati-Shakti' will bring down the time and cost overrun of infrastructure projects.

Addressing a webinar, the Prime Minister said the budget FY23 has set the pace of India's development journey in 21st century and will lead to extraordinary increase in the strength of the country's economy, creating many new possibilities of employment.

The 'PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan', was announced last year.

It intends to bring more holistic and integrated planning and execution of projects by bringing in greater co-ordination between and ministries and other stakeholders.

Besides, the Prime Minister underlined the lack of coordination among the stakeholders in the traditional ways of completing projects, he said it was due to lack of clear information among the various concerned departments.

"Due to 'PM Gatishakti', now everyone will be able to make their plan with complete information. This will also lead to optimum utilisation of the country's resources", the Prime Minister said.

"In the year 2013-14, the direct capital expenditure of the government of India was about two-and-a-half lakh crore rupees, which has increased to seven-and-a-half lakh crore rupees in the year 2022-23," he said.

Mentioning about the production-linked incentive (PLI) initiative, the Prime Minister called upon the private sector to invest in development of country's infrastructure.

In addition, the Prime Minister said that 'Gati Shakti' will ensure true public-private partnership in infrastructure creation from planning to development and utilisation stages.