Guwahati, Feb 28: Union minister for petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri underlined the role of the petroleum sector in driving Northeast’s industrial growth.
“Oil production from North East Region is expected to increase by 67 percent from 4.11 MMT (million metric tonnes) in 2020-21 to 6.85 MMT in the next 4 years,” Puri said, while addressing the North-East Zonal Conference for PM GatiShakti (PMGS) here on Monday.
The Union minister informed that the area under exploration in the region would double in the near future, with crude production expected to go up by 45 percent in four years, and gas production by about 90 percent in the same period.
Speaking on PM GatiShakti, a national master plan launched by the Prime Minister in October last year for holistic development of infrastructure projects for multi-modal connectivity, Puri termed PMGS a remarkable initiative, which aims to drive down logistics costs by streamlining and integrating infrastructure projects of various central and state governments.
“Through this breakthrough master plan, major projects across sectors such as petroleum, railways, highways, utilities, etc. will share a unified vision for accelerated and efficient execution,” he said.
Puri further said that synergies between multi-modal transportation, logistics and supply chains, urban development, ports and utilities and services can be made to bring about a transformation in both ease of living and ease of doing business.
“Indian goods and services will move on an express lane and Indian industry will be able to match the export capabilities of manufacturing hubs like China, Taiwan and South Korea,” he added.
“PM GatiShakti will ensure multimodal connectivity. For instance, fresh fruits grown in North East India will swiftly cater to consuming markets and the Gulf,” the minister said.
Requesting all the state government leaders to lend their support to this transformative mission by the way of necessary project clearances and the cooperation of state agencies, Puri said that in order to succeed, this dream needs to be fulfilled by teamwork.
The conference was organised by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to reiterate the central government’s focus to ensure rapid infrastructural development in the Northeast. The meet aimed to bring together various stakeholders and hasten infrastructure development and adoption of environment-friendly natural gas in the region.
Prior to the start of the conference, the dignitaries attended a webinar on the vision of GatiShakti and its convergence with Union Budget 2022,which was addressed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister said that this year’s budget has set the pace (Gatishakti) of India’s development in the 21st century.
“This direction of ‘Infrastructure-based development’ will lead to an extraordinary increase in the strength of our economy, creating many new possibilities of employment,” Modi said.
Addressing the conference, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Prime Minister has brought about a paradigm shift in the development of the country, and PMGS would benefit people immensely.
“The Northeast is connected to the rest of the country through a chicken-neck, and hence this master plan for connectivity is unique in nature. The state has already prepared an institutional framework for PMGS and has also started capacity building,” Sarma said.