India’s PRAGATI platform helps accelerate 340 projects worth $205 billion

The platform supported infrastructure development, including 50,000 km of new national highways and a doubling of airports.

Hyderabad: India’s PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) platform helped accelerate 340 projects worth $205 billion, as per new case study by Oxford’s Saïd Business School released at IIM Bangalore.

The platform supported infrastructure development, including 50,000 km of new national highways and a doubling of airports. For every rupee spent on infrastructure, studies show a 2.5 to 3.5-rupee gain in GDP, the study revealed.

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According to study, the platform emerged as India’s primary problem-solver for infrastructure bottlenecks. Its existence catalyzes resolution – officials often solve problems before they reach the Prime Minister’s review. For projects that do come up for review, PRAGATI’s integrated approach helps break long-standing deadlocks in areas such as land acquisition and environmental clearances, as per the study.

The platform operates within a broader ecosystem including PM Gati Shakti for infrastructure planning and PARIVESH for environmental clearances. This integration, according to study, dramatically reduced approval timelines – environmental clearances that once took 600 days can now be obtained in 70-75 days. The ecosystem uses sophisticated tools including drone monitoring and GIS-based mapping.

The impact extended beyond infrastructure to accelerating social development programmes and under it’s oversight, rural households with tap water connections increased from 17 per cent to 79 per cent in five years. It also helped reduce government response time to citizen grievances from 32 to 20 days and supported initiatives like the Swachh Bharat Mission, the study added.