Jammu, Nov 22 (KNO): Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo Saturday chaired a high-level meeting of all concerned Administrative Heads to review the status of data layers uploaded on the PM Gati Shakti (PMGS) Portal across Jammu & Kashmir and to assess progress in leveraging the platform as a comprehensive decision-support system for holistic and evidence-based governance.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary underscored the critical importance of developing innovative and user-oriented analytical tools on the PMGS portal to derive clear insights from the available datasets. He emphasized that accurate, granular and dynamic data is vital for informed policy formulation and efficient service delivery aimed at enhancing public welfare.
He took this occasion to urge all departments to move beyond conventional data uploading and focus on meaningful analytical integration to strengthen planning and monitoring mechanisms. He called for accelerating the creation of polygonal data instead of mapping point data only.
The Chief Secretary directed the Planning, Development & Monitoring Department to take the lead in uploading detailed data layers concerning youth engagement across all districts of the UT. He called for comprehensive datasets covering skilling initiatives, employment trends, entrepreneurial activities, sports participation and educational indicators of youth to facilitate the formulation of targeted and impactful youth-centric policies.
Highlighting the inter-departmental responsibility in strengthening the PMGS framework, the Chief Secretary urged the Home Department to upload granular data pertaining to drug hotspots, substance abuse patterns and area-wise prevalence of related cases.
He also called upon the Agriculture Production Department to consider integration of data relating to crop production, productivity indicators and animal husbandry statistics to enable data-driven agricultural planning and improved sectoral interventions.
The Health Department was impressed upon to upload comprehensive health-related datasets, particularly concerning the prevalence of critical diseases such as anaemia and cancer across the UT. He noted that such data would assist authorities in devising focused healthcare interventions and optimizing resource allocation.
Furthermore, departments including Rural Development Department (RDD), Housing & Urban Development Department (H&UDD) and others were advised to maximize their contributions by uploading as many relevant and analytical layers as possible to enhance the overall utility of the portal.
Providing an overview of the current status, Commissioner Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Vikramjit Singh informed the meeting that as many as 640 individual layers have been uploaded by around 40 departments, including 609 additional layers and 26 analytical tools, positioning Jammu & Kashmir among the top three States/UTs in the country in terms of PM Gati Shakti data integration and utilization.
Further, Director, I&C Jammu, Arun Manhas apprised the meeting that 37 infrastructure projects with an estimated value exceeding Rs 5000 crore have been deliberated in Network Planning Group (NPG) meetings following the GAD threshold order of Rs 20 crore.
He also highlighted the implementation of a structured Maker-Checker-Approver mechanism and the circulation of SOPs and a comprehensive Primer on PM Gati Shakti along with practical use cases among user departments. More than 100 capacity-building sessions have been conducted to enhance departmental proficiency in handling the PMGS platform.
Later, the Chief Secretary formally inaugurated the Advanced GIS Portal and GIS-Based Asset Mapping Mobile Application developed for the Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD), marking a significant milestone in the modernization of urban infrastructure planning and management in Jammu & Kashmir.
Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD, Mandeep Kaur highlighted that this future-ready initiative establishes a robust digital framework with real-time integration to the PM Gati Shakti national portal, ensuring seamless synchronization of both legacy datasets and new API-driven integrations. She added that the system hosts more than 90 comprehensive layers with over 600 attributes, covering key developmental schemes including AMRUT 2.0, SBM 2.0, PMAY, Smart Cities Mission (SCM) and 5G street infrastructure.
The mobile application has been designed for versatility, enabling conduct of varied field surveys and uniquely facilitating the mapping of online service portal data through dedicated layers. This comprehensive digital ecosystem is expected to serve as a dynamic and holistic tool for efficient urban governance, strategic planning and sustainable development across J&K.
The meeting concluded with a reaffirmation of the commitment to strengthen integrated planning through technology-driven platforms, reinforcing the UT’s vision of transparent, data-driven and citizen-centric governance—(KNO)