Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday asked the NITI Aayog to map all the different projects such as Industrial Corridors, Freight Corridors, Defence Corridors, NIMZ (National Industrial Manufacturing Zones) PLI-based industry parks, PM-Mitra parks, Medical & Pharma Parks and Logistic Parks to understand the need for bringing them under PM GatiShakti.

Chairing the first meeting of the Apex Monitoring Authority constituted to review the activities of National Industrial Corridor Development programme, the Finance Minister also asked the Shipping Ministry to map out all the seaports connected to various industrial corridors to see whether there are meaningful linkages.

Sitharaman asked the next meeting of the Monitoring Committee to be convened in November.

Emphasising upon the need to ensure optimal utilisation of resources, the Finance Minister said PM’s GatiShakti National Master Plan was expected to bring about greater coherence in all investments in infrastructure projects.

The Apex Monitoring Authority comprises the Finance Minister as Chairperson, Minister-in- charge, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Minister of Railways, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Minister of Shipping, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, and chief minister(s) of states concerned.

Chief Ministers from six states, viz Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra and Uttarkhand; Ministers from seven states viz Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan besides senior officials from all the states attended the meeting.

Addressing the meeting which was also attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Railways and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Sitharaman thanked the state chief ministers and Ministers for keeping the work going all these years. “What started with about 3-4 states with few nodes today has gone to cover 18 states and the ecosystem for industrial development has taken a different colour and speed as we are seeing a far more liberalized environment. This is a rapid scaling up and as a result there should be a greater cumulative benefit, we should be able to derive,” she said while urging the states to expedite the acquisition of land.