As many as 229 critical infrastructure projects, of different ministries have been examined and recommended by the Network Planning Group (NPG), constituted under the PM Gati Shakti initiative, since last October. These projects are from ministries including steel, coal, ports and shipping. On October 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Gati Shakti National Master Plan aimed at developing integrated infrastructure to reduce logistic costs. Under this plan, all logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects entailing investment of over Rs 5 billion are routed through the NPG.

"As of today, 229 critical infrastructure gaps have been reported and necessary recommendations have been given by the NPG from the perspective of logistics efficiency," Special Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Amrit Lal Meena told reporters this week.

"Use of the National Master Plan portal is helping the central and state governments to cut time and cost of critical infrastructure projects. Unforeseen disruptions will be reduced now due to use of the portal," he said.

Access to the portal is restricted to the government authorities. It is used for identification of critical gaps and planning of projects. So far, 26 states have integrated different categories of data with this portal. "NMP portal is now extensively used by central as well as state governments," Meena said.

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