PM Modi reviews four major projects worth Rs 30,000 crore, calls for timely completion under PM Gati Shakti framework
The Prime Minister chaired the 52nd edition of PRAGATI — the government's monthly ICT-enabled platform for reviewing infrastructure projects and public grievances.
Four major infrastructure projects collectively worth over ₹30,000 crore were reviewed for timely completion, with emphasis on alignment with the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan framework.
Concerns around cybercrime and the phenomenon of "digital arrests" — where fraudsters impersonate law-enforcement officials in video calls to extort money — were also discussed, with directions for coordinated inter-agency action and faster grievance redressal.
The meeting brought together Union Government Secretaries and State Chief Secretaries through video-conferencing, demonstrating PRAGATI's cooperative-federalism design.
The review underscored the government's focus on reducing project cost overruns and time delays, which have historically inflated infrastructure delivery costs in India.
PRAGATI — Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation
PRAGATI is a multi-purpose, multi-modal ICT platform launched on 25 March 2015. Chaired personally by the Prime Minister, it is held monthly — typically on the fourth Wednesday — and serves as an interactive forum connecting the Prime Minister with Union Government Secretaries and State Chief Secretaries simultaneously via video-conferencing enriched with data and geo-spatial visuals. It uniquely bundles three technologies: digital data management, video-conferencing, and geo-spatial (GIS) tools.
Key Details
- Designed in-house by the PMO with support from the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
- Covers: (i) grievances of common citizens, (ii) ongoing programmes of the Union Government, and (iii) infrastructure projects flagged by State Governments.
- A 2021 Oxford Saïd Business School study reported that PRAGATI "has helped accelerate over 340 critical projects worth $205 billion" since its launch.
- Each meeting is called a "PRAGATI Day"; the platform enables real-time monitoring against MoSPI's project-tracking data to identify cost overruns and time-delay patterns.
The 52nd PRAGATI meeting is a direct iteration of this governance mechanism; the ₹30,000-crore review is one of its standard outputs.
PM Gati Shakti — National Master Plan for Multimodal Connectivity
PM Gati Shakti was launched on 13 October 2021 as a digital platform and governance framework integrating 16 central ministries — including Railways, Road Transport, Civil Aviation, Shipping, and Agriculture — onto a single GIS-enabled dashboard for coordinated infrastructure planning. Its goal is to eliminate inter-departmental silos that cause duplication, delays, and cost escalations in infrastructure delivery.
Key Details
- Built on over 200+ layers of geospatial data, including satellite imagery from ISRO, on a platform developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics).
- Subsumes earlier schemes: Bharatmala (roads), Sagarmala (ports), inland waterways, UDAN (regional aviation), and industrial corridor projects.
- Target: reduce logistics costs from ~14% of GDP to ~8% of GDP through supply-chain efficiency.
- Covers economic zones: textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, agri zones, fishing clusters.
- The framework gives PRAGATI reviews a spatial and data backbone — projects are tracked against the master plan layers.
The four projects reviewed at the 52nd meeting are assessed for compliance with PM Gati Shakti's multimodal connectivity logic — whether rail, road, port, and last-mile links are co-planned to avoid stranded assets.
Infrastructure Project Monitoring and Cost Overruns
MoSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) maintains the Central Sector Projects Monitoring System for projects costing ₹150 crore and above. Historically, large infrastructure projects in India have suffered from two structural problems: time overruns (average 30–50% beyond scheduled completion) and cost overruns (average 15–30% beyond original estimates). PRAGATI and PM Gati Shakti together address this through real-time digital tracking and PM-level accountability.
Key Details
- Cost overruns arise from: land acquisition delays, utility shifting, inter-agency clearance backlogs, and poor last-mile planning.
- MoSPI's Flash Report (monthly) tracks 1,800+ central sector projects.
- PRAGATI adds political accountability — project secretaries present status directly to the PM.
The ₹30,000-crore review at the 52nd meeting directly targets reduction of these overrun patterns through PM-chaired oversight.
Cybercrime and "Digital Arrests" — Governance Response
"Digital arrest" scams involve fraudsters posing as CBI, Narcotics Control Bureau, TRAI, or customs officials and conducting sham video-call "interrogations" to coerce victims into transferring money. These are not a legal category of arrest — no law enforcement agency in India has the power to conduct a "digital arrest." The issue sits at the intersection of cybercrime law (IT Act, 2000; Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023) and inter-agency coordination between MHA's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), TRAI, RBI, and State Police.
Key Details
- I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre): nodal body under MHA for cybercrime coordination.
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) and helpline 1930 are the primary grievance channels.
- PRAGATI's inclusion of cybercrime redressal signals its evolution from pure infrastructure tracking to broader citizen-service governance.
The 52nd meeting directed coordinated action across agencies — consistent with PRAGATI's mandate of breaking departmental silos for faster citizen grievance resolution.
- PRAGATI launched: 25 March 2015
- PRAGATI frequency: monthly, chaired by the Prime Minister (fourth Wednesday)
- 52nd PRAGATI meeting: June 2026; reviewed projects worth over ₹30,000 crore
- PM Gati Shakti launched: 13 October 2021
- PM Gati Shakti integrates: 16 central ministries on one GIS platform
- Geospatial platform developer: BiSAG-N (using ISRO imagery)
- Schemes subsumed under Gati Shakti: Bharatmala, Sagarmala, UDAN, inland waterways
- Logistics cost target: reduce from ~14% of GDP to ~8% of GDP
- PRAGATI impact (Oxford study): accelerated 340+ projects worth $205 billion
- Cybercrime helpline: 1930; portal: cybercrime.gov.in
- Nodal cybercrime agency: I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) under MHA