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The commerce and industry ministry has said that as many as 106 big-ticket infrastructure projects of different ministries worth Rs 11 lakh crore have been recommended for approval under the PM GatiShakti initiative so far this fiscal (FY24). These projects have been recommended by the Network Planning Group (NPG) constituted under the PM GatiShakti initiative launched in October 2021. Six projects -- including three each from Railways and Road Transport and Highways ministries -- with a total cost of Rs 14,081 crore were assessed.

The inter-ministerial NPG meets every fortnight and appraises infra projects to ensure multi-modality, synchronisation of efforts, and comprehensive development in and around the project location. The initiative was launched to develop an integrated infrastructure to reduce logistics costs. All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investments of over Rs 500 crore are routed through the NPG.

The NPG's approval is required before clearance of the project by the Public Investment Board (PIB) or Department of Expenditure under the finance ministry. The maximum number of projects recommended by the group are related to roads, railways and urban development. A total of 40 road projects with a total investment of Rs 3.65 lakh crore, 40 railway projects worth Rs 95,704 crore and 8 urban development projects valued at Rs 79,016 crore have been approved. The NMP (National Master Plan) has a number of layers of geospatial data showing all physical and social infrastructure of an area and land records in one place. It has been designed for faster planning and better design so that the impact of an investment is maximised.