First meeting of EGoS held to review implementation of PM Gati Shakti Scheme in Ladakh

First meeting of EGoS held to review implementation of PM Gati Shakti Scheme in Ladakh

Leh, Oct 4: A meeting of the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) constituted for the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti Programme in the Union Territory of Ladakh was held today under the Chairmanship of Advisor, Ladakh, Umang Narula at Civil Secretariat, Leh.

Advisor, Ladakh, Umang Narula (Chairman) stated that in Ladakh, banks are located at large distances due to the tough terrain and a scientific tool to decide the optimal location for branches would be useful to improve ease of living. Similarly, with regard to telecom towers, he added that the network could be improved using the geospatial applications developed in the Gati Shakti programme.

Principal Secretary, Revenue and Planning, Dr Pawan Kotwal apprised the meeting of the background and progress of the PM Gati Shakti Programme in Ladakh. He informed that a Network Planning Group (NPG) and a Technical Support Unit (TSU) have been constituted to support the EGoS in the implementation of the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan. He apprised that the Administration had deputed nine govt. officials from various depts. for a training workshop from 13th to 15th July held at BISAG-N. Since revenue records are the basic layer for PM Gati Shakti, the Principal Secretary informed the meeting that digitisation of land records in the UT of Ladakh is underway. He added that the Revenue Department has geotagged all the relevant infrastructure (Revenue Offices) on ‘Google Maps’ and is continuously uploading the SVAMITVA shape file on the BISAG portal.

Dr Jivisha Joshi, Deputy Secretary (Logistics) DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, GoI gave a detailed presentation outlining the status of the interaction of UT with BISAG-N for the development of the UT master plan (SMP); integration and authentication of 28 mandatory data layers on UT master plan portal (SMP); status of development of State Logistics Policy/Plan; addressing the inter-departmental issues of coordination through an institutional arrangement that helps to break silos and support from DPIIIT and BISAG-N.

Advisor Narula thanked the Deputy Secretary (Logistics) DPIIT for giving comprehensive details on the various layers for Ladakh and her valuable suggestions He instructed the concerned officials to develop a training calendar and stated that department-wise training should be held for capacity building.

PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan was launched on 13th October 2021 with the objective to provide multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones. The Master Plan includes all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralized portal. The plan has been developed as a Digital Master Planning tool by BISAG-N as a dynamic Geographic Information System (GIS) platform wherein data on a specific action plan of all the Ministries/Departments have been incorporated within a comprehensive database. The platform allows all departments to have visibility of each other’s activities, thus, providing critical data while planning & executing projects in a comprehensive manner.

The meeting was also attended by Comm/Secy, RDD, Saugat Biswas; Secretary, Tourism/Labour & Employment, Kacho Mehboob Khan; Secretary, Power Dept, Ravinder Kumar; Secretary Law, Fayaz Ahmad and other concerned officials.