CM Bhajan Lal Marks 5 Years of PM GatiShakti in Rajasthan
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
Five years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched it on 13 October 2021, the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan has become the backbone of India's infrastructure ambition — and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma says his state is riding that momentum hard.
What PM GatiShakti set out to fix
Before October 2021, infrastructure projects across India often moved in silos — railways planned without talking to roads, ports without talking to logistics hubs. PM GatiShakti broke that wall. Built on a GIS-based digital platform, it brought over a dozen central ministries onto a single canvas, forcing coordinated planning across roads, rail, ports, airports and utilities. The scheme itself grew from the National Infrastructure Pipeline announced in 2019, which had mapped out capital expenditure targets for the country's core sectors.
CM Sharma captured the shift in his post: 'behtar planning, samanvit drishtikon aur aadhunik connectivity' — 'better planning, a coordinated approach and modern connectivity' — had simultaneously eased travel and opened new doors for industry, trade and jobs.
Rajasthan's place on the GatiShakti map
Rajasthan — India's largest state by area — has historically struggled with uneven connectivity across its vast geography. CM Sharma pointed to world-class highways, a strengthened logistics network and robust multi-modal connectivity as evidence that the state is now on what he called a 'vikas ke swarnim path' — a 'golden path of development'. The logistics sector, industries dependent on freight movement and daily highway users all stand to gain as national planning frameworks align with state-level execution.
The pattern here is deliberate: the centre has consistently encouraged states to dovetail their own infrastructure pipelines with the national master plan, turning GatiShakti from a central policy into a living federal partnership.
Five years in, the stakes for the next phase
Anniversaries are milestones, but they are also accountability moments. The five-year mark invites scrutiny of what has actually been delivered against what was planned — and what the next phase of GatiShakti looks like as India targets higher logistics efficiency and deeper economic-corridor integration. State-level progress reports and any central review of the scheme's next phase will be the real measure of whether the momentum Sharma celebrates is structural or ceremonial.