By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 25, 2023: UNION Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari chaired the 10th meeting of Group of Infrastructure Committee yesterday to address existing inter-ministerial issues with regard to implementation of various infrastructure projects. Gadkari said an action plan has been introduced to accelerate PM Gati Shakti scheme's progress.

Piyush Goyal,Union Minister for Commerce and Industry; Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology; Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and Labour & Employment; Gen (Dr.) V. K. Singh (Retd.),  Minister of State for RT&H & Civil Aviation; Krishan Pal Gurjar,  Minister of State for Power; pad Naik,  Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways; and Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State for Defence & Tourism participated in the meeting.

Senior Officers from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Ministry of Defence (MoD), Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Ministry of Railways (MoR), Ministry for Commerce and Industry (MoCI), Ministry of Power (MoP), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) and representatives from States attended the meeting.

Several issues were placed on the agenda for deliberation to expedite the progress of on-going infrastructure projects. These included issues related to pending forest and environment clearances, facilitation of working permissions/approvals, ensuring land allocation/transfer and release of funds. Discussions were also held on policy matters related to environment/forest/wildlife clearance, railways and power, among others. Environment Clearances and Land policies of Railways & MoRTH and making comprehensive guidelines for Environment and Forest clearance were also discussed at length.

The concerned officers were directed to expedite the process of clearance and implementation of above matters. The stakeholder Ministries/Departments agreed to look into various issues raised and resolve the same in order to expedite infrastructure projects.