New Delhi: The first six months of the flagship Gati Shakti Mission have thrown up over 130 critical projects where ‘infrastructure gaps’ have been noted and flagged off to the concerned ministries.

ET has gathered that as many as 80 projects have been identified by the Ministry of Shipping, Ports and Waterways, 38 by the Ministry of Steel and 13 by the Coal ministry where there are infrastructure gaps that other ministries need to address. For instance, on ports-road linkages to Machilipatnam port, Mundra and Dahej ports, Sachana ship recycling yard, Keni-Belekeri port, connectivity to Kundapur and Bhatkal ports, besides links to Malpe, Hangarkatta and Padubidri are required. The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH) and the National Highways Authority of India are the implementing agencies that are now holding discussions with the Network Planning Group (NPG) under Gati Shakti to expedite the projects.

Similarly, integrated development of Tadadi-Aghanshini waterway in Uttara Kannada district, upgradation of the road link to Dighi port, Sangegaon jetty project, Cochin port and the six-lane connectivity to Deendayal port trust besides better linkage to Diamond Harbor are on the list to be taken up by the Project Monitoring Group of Gati Shakti. There are also 38 projects flagged by the ministry of steel. These involve infrastructure gaps mainly related to railway line tripling to link iron mines to coastal areas and ports and require the railway ministry’s attention and have been duly forwarded to them for resolution.

There are also the likes of the Brahamani river and Amba river waterway connections and Paradeep port decongestion which has been referred to the Ministry of Shipping, ports and waterways. There are several oil pipeline projects involving the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas while airport and air strip expansion towards Raipur, Jharsuguda, Jamshedpur, Angul have also been requested.

The 13 coal ministry projects being monitoring under Mission Gati Shakti are related to coal evacuation infrastructure — mainly road and rail networks. Some are needed to supplement existing connectivity as the case in Talcher and others to provide new lines like in Shivpur-Kathautia and Kharsia-Dharamjaigar.

The East-West rail corridor needed for faster coal evacuation form Korba coalfields requires several green clearances from the Environment ministry. It is here that the PM Gatishakti National Master Plan (NMP) — the digital platform for planning multimodal infrastructure connectivity to various economic zones — and with 16 ministries on board, comes into play.

It is envisaged that over 1,300 projects will be onboarded to the NMP by 2024 — 850 of them are mapped on to it so far.