The Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) has appreciated government’s initiative to launch a Rs 100 trillion national master plan for multi-modal connectivity to reduce the logistic costs and boost the economy. With the launch of the plan, the government aimed at cutting logistic costs, increasing cargo handling capacity and reducing the turnaround time.
According to DIPA, the national master plan has given a major boost to the robust digital infrastructure and lot of relevance to the telecom sector including unified portal for approvals of infrastructure projects, cross-sector collaboration with other utilities like water, gas, electricity, broadcasting, railways, etc. for sharing infrastructure – common ducts, uniform policy at all states/union territories and central ministries/departments for telecom right-of-way (RoW)– uniform timelines, fees, documentation etc., availability of land/properties of other ministries/departments for deploying telecom infrastructure – airports, post-office, metro/rail stations, highways, sharing of telecom infrastructure with other utilities by enhancing the scope of telecom infrastructure providers (TSPs).
DIPA further appreciates the launch of ‘GatiShakti Sanchar’ Portal for RoW approvals is a central collaborative platform between all stakeholders, including central and state/UT government(s), local bodies, and service providers to facilitate the faster RoW deployment to boost digital infrastructure in the country. According to DIPA, the much awaited centralised RoW portal is one-step forward towards “Ease of Doing Business”, bringing transparency, accountability and responsiveness to all telecom stake holders while processing the application, also providing a strong mechanism to achieve the National Digital Communication Policy-2018 goal of “Broadband to All”.
Commenting on the development, T.R.Dua, director general, DIPA, said, “Government’s GatiShakti Master Plan is a major boost to develop a robust telecom infrastructure in our country and it is imperative to develop ‘state-of-the-art’ network architecture just like other infrastructure facilities such as water, sewage, railway, roads and transportation etc. as telecommunication services nowadays have become an integral and essential necessity of our daily lives. The launch of Gati ShaktiSanchar Portal has proven to be a game changer in getting the long-time pending RoW applications granted in a speedy and timely manner.”
