GatiShakti Shift: A Decade of Faster, Greener Transport

India’s transport story has entered a new gear. Under the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, 44 ministries and 36 states now plan infrastructure on a single GIS platform, ending the old silo approach and laying the groundwork for “Viksit Bharat 2047.”

Highways are the headline act: the national network has expanded 60 percent—from 91,287 km in 2014 to 146,204 km—and construction speed has tripled to 34 km a day. Within the flagship Bharatmala programme alone, 26,425 km have been awarded and more than 20,000 km are already open to traffic.

Rail modernisation is close behind. Over 45,000 route-km are now electrified, cutting fuel costs and emissions, while the indigenously developed Kavach automatic-train-protection system is boosting safety on busy corridors.

Air travel has become markedly more democratic. The UDAN regional-connectivity scheme has made 88 airports operational and flown 1.51 crore passengers; Digi Yatra’s facial-recognition gates already speed journeys at 24 hubs. On the coast, port capacity has doubled to 2,762 MMTPA, vessel turnaround time has dropped from 93 to 49 hours, and inland-waterways cargo has risen 710 percent to 146 MMT. Green-hydrogen hubs at three major ports herald the next sustainability leap.

Together, these multimodal gains are shrinking logistics costs, knitting markets, and setting India on course for faster—and cleaner—economic growth.