New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS) A high-level Network Planning Group (NPG) meeting under PM Gati Shakti national master plan took up four infrastructure projects worth Rs 15,000 crore for discussion on Thursday.

These included two railway line projects. The first involves a Greenfield railway line spanning 127 km in the state of Jharkhand which aims to bridge the last-mile gap to existing coal blocks. The project will reduce the distance and time for travel.

The second project involved a brownfield railway line in Jharkhand and West Bengal, benefiting logistical movement in the industrial belt of Burnpur, Durgapur, and Asansol. This initiative is aimed at alleviating congestion on the existing railway line, providing an additional traffic capacity and generating extra revenue through detention savings.

As per Gati Shakti principles, the projects were discussed to promote multimodal connectivity to the manufacturing and commercial zones, while uplifting the socio-economic development of the region through improved logistics ecosystem.

Further, two road projects were also discussed with a combined road length of more than 300 kms. One project is in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, aiming to uplift the socio-economic conditions in tribal districts and a Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected district. The road is expected to reduce the length of present travel by 11% (from 153.45 km to 136.62 km) and travel time by 56% (from 4.2 hours to 1.85 hours).

The second road project, situated in Assam and Mizoram, offers alternative connectivity route in the region, resulting in a 20% reduction in length (from 215 km to 172 km) and a 50% reduction in travel time (from 5 hours to 2.5 hours) over present connectivity. This road is poised to benefit industrial parks and the Bamboo Technology Park in the region.

A Rail Sagar Corridor programme by the Ministry of Railway was also taken up with the objective of increasing the Rail and ports-based cargo share by 2031, improving modal shift for Railways and contributing to cleaner ways of freight movement.

The meeting was held under chairpersonship of Special Secretary (Logistics), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sumita Dawra. NPG members representing various infrastructure Ministries and Departments, such as Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Ministry of Power, Department of Telecommunications and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, besides NITI Aayog participated in the meeting.