Infrastructure: Connectivity and Urban Growth

The “Reform Express” vision focuses on modernising India’s physical and digital infrastructure through high-speed connectivity, waterways and urban economic development.

The strategy aims to strengthen logistics efficiency, regional growth, multimodal transport and sustainable urbanisation.

Project	Details
High-Speed Rail Corridors	Seven high-speed rail corridors are proposed, including Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad and Delhi-Varanasi.
National Waterways	The government plans to operationalise 20 new National Waterways over five years, beginning with NW-5 in Odisha.
City Economic Regions	City Economic Regions (CERs) will be mapped and developed in Tier-II and Tier-III cities with an allocation of Rs. 5000 crore per CER.
Coastal Cargo Promotion	The scheme aims to increase the share of inland waterways and coastal shipping from 6% to 12% by 2047.
Seaplane VGF Scheme	Viability Gap Funding will support indigenous seaplane manufacturing and operational expansion.

PT Facts

National Waterways: Declared under the National Waterways Act, 2016.
NW-5: Located in Odisha and linked with the Brahmani river system and East Coast Canal.
VGF: Viability Gap Funding supports economically justified but financially less viable infrastructure projects.
Coastal Shipping: Reduces logistics cost, road congestion and carbon emissions.

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