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The Ministry of Commerce & Industry announced on Tuesday that 352 infrastructure projects, with a total estimated cost of Rs 16.10 lakh crore, have been evaluated through the PM GatiShakti Network Planning Group (NPG) mechanism.
The NPG was created to ensure that major government projects are planned in an integrated way. According to the Ministry, the group "evaluates the critical infrastructure projects of the Central Government to ensure integrated planning, multimodality, inter-modality, synchronisation of efforts, last mile connectivity, comprehensive development in and around the project location, data-driven decision makings, etc at the planning stage." Of the 352 projects reviewed to date, 201 have been sanctioned. The Ministry noted that among these sanctioned projects, "167 projects are under implementation." To support state-level development, the Ministry of Finance has allocated Rs 5,000 crore to states. This funding is distributed as 50-year interest-free loans. The Ministry stated that this provision was made "for disbursement among the States for infrastructure development in the form of 50 years interest-free loan" under a special assistance scheme for capital investment. The government is also using new digital tools to track these projects. Ongoing central projects worth Rs 150 crore or more are monitored by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. A new system, PAIMANA, has been used since July 2025 to publish detailed reports. The Ministry of Commerce & Industry explained that this "detailed flash report, showing status, cost overruns, etc., is being published from July 2025 onwards on PAIMANA (Project Assessment Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics for Nation Building) portal." For even larger projects costing over Rs 500 crore, a Project Monitoring Group (PMG) helps resolve delays. This group uses a five-tier system to move issues up the chain of command when they get stuck. The Ministry said this "ensures issues are addressed at the appropriate level, beginning with the respective Ministry for regular issues and escalating upto the PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) forum for complex issues." By linking the National Master Plan to this monitoring group, the government aims to complete projects more quickly. The Ministry of Commerce & Industry stated that this integration "has expedited resolution of issues and regulatory bottlenecks in implementation of the projects." (ANI)
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