GatiShakti Sanchar Portal | 16 May 2022

For Prelims: GatiShakti Sanchar Portal, Gati Shakti Scheme

For Mains: Government Policies & Interventions, Significance of GatiShakti Sanchar Portal

Recently, the Ministry of Communications has launched the “GatiShakti Sanchar” portal for Centralised Right of Way (RoW) approvals.

About: The portal has been developed keeping in view the vision areas of the National Broadband Mission at the core, which are providing broadband infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen, Governance and services on demand, and in particular, digital empowerment of the citizens of the country.
Objective: The portal shall act as an enabler to the objective of “Ease of doing business” for telecommunications infrastructure works.

Timely Rollout of 5G Network: The timely disposal of RoW applications of various Service and Infrastructure providers shall enable speedy infrastructure creation which would be an enabler for the timely rollout of the 5G Network also.
- For effective monitoring of RoW applications across the country, the portal even comes fitted with a potent dashboard showing State and District wise pendency status.
Improved Quality of Telecom Services: This will lead to:
- Fast laying of more Optical Fiber Cable will thus accelerate fiberization.
- Increased tower density which will enhance connectivity and improve the quality of various telecom services.
- Increased fiberization of telecom towers, thus ensuring better Broadband speed, across the country.
Empowerment of the Country: This portal is expected to give a fillip to the nation’s ‘AatmaNirbhar’ movement, contributing actively to transforming the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
Significant for Both Rural and Urban India: This will ensure uninterrupted digital access, digital delivery of services, and digital inclusion of all, based on technology that is sustainable, affordable and transformative.

About:
- In 2021 the government launched the ambitious Gati Shakti scheme or National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity, with the aim of coordinated planning and execution of infrastructure projects to bring down logistics costs.
Aim:
- To ensure integrated planning and implementation of infrastructure projects in the next four years, with a focus on expediting works on the ground, saving costs, and creating jobs.
- The Gati Shakti scheme will subsume the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline that was launched in 2019.
- Besides cutting logistics costs, the scheme is also aimed at increasing cargo handling capacity and reducing the turnaround time at ports to boost trade.
- It also aims to have 11 industrial corridors and two new defence corridors - one in Tamil Nadu and the other in Uttar Pradesh.
- Extending 4G connectivity to all villages is another aim. Adding 17,000 kms to the gas pipeline network is being planned.
- It will help in fulfilling the ambitious targets set by the government for 2024-25, including expanding the length of the national highway network to 2 lakh kms, creation of more than 200 new airports, heliports, and water aerodromes.

About: It was set up by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) in 2019.
Objective: To facilitate universal and equitable access to broadband services across the country, especially in rural and remote areas.
- To fulfill this vision, it is imperative that a backbone of infrastructure is created by facilitating the smooth and efficient deployment of Digital Communications Infrastructure across the country.
- The “GatiShakti Sanchar” portal will provide a robust mechanism to achieve the goal of “Broadband for All” as envisaged in the National Digital Communication Policy-2.