Gati Shakti Directorate helps Railways fast track projects

Project approval for the Railways has gained steam with the setting up of the Gati Shakti Directorate.

According to officials, 300 projects have been approved this fiscal as against 40 to 45 in the same period in previous years.

Railway projects

“The effort is ensure project sanctioning and approval of DPRs is done in a time bound manner. In many cases, the time for approval has been reduced to as little as one month,” noted a source, adding that the objective is to ensure that all bottlenecks are removed and projects are facilitated smoothly.

“Projects including railway station redevelopment, new lines, gauge conversion, etc are being taken up,” the source said, adding that officers of eight railway board directorates are posted in the Gati Shakti Directorate to ensure smooth and fast coordination for projects.

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It is expected that the efforts would also give a boost to the Railways’ freight business by helping improve the railway network.

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About Gati Shakti Directorate

The Ministry of Railways had in May this year set up the Gati Shakti Directorate “to bring synergy and to improve efficiency of the system so as to create additional rail infrastructure and thereby enhance railway market share in the country’s cargo loading and reduce logistic cost”.

It is responsible for planning and prioritisation of projects relating to the directorate and sanctioning of survey.

Gati Shakti Units are also being set up for removing infrastructure bottlenecks, improving mobility, increasing freight loading in Khurda, Bilaspur, Delhi, and Bengaluru to start with.

This follows the launch of the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for providing multi-modal connectivity infrastructure to various Economic Zones last year.