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Rs 2 lakh crore road projects in UP soon: Gadkari
Union minister for transport and national highways, Nitin Gadkari announced that his department would soon begin road projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore in Uttar Pradesh and construct 5 lakh-km new roads and national highways.
Union minister for transport and national highways, Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday announced that his department would soon begin road projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore in UP and construct 5 lakh-km new roads and national highways.
Presiding over the session ‘Propelling Infrastructure Development in UP’ during the investors’ summit, he said money was not a problem, but the lack of vision was. He said UP was a rich state with poor people because of the lack of vision for development and hoped the state would achieve heights of development under the leadership of its chief minister, Yogi Adtyanath.
Gadkari said his ministry was ready to help UP in all possible ways, provided land was made available for the road projects. “You provide us land and we will not let you down,” he said pointing to minister for industrial development, Satish Mahana on the dais.
The minister said Lucknow-Kanpur travel time would be reduced to just 40 minutes on the completion of the expressway connecting the two cities. Work on the proposed expressway, he said, would begin with ‘bhoomi poojan’ in April. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the Delhi-Meerut expressway next month.
However, Gadkari’s emphasis was more on the development of waterways which, he claimed, could be a game-changer for UP. “The ongoing Rs 54,000-crore Varanasi-Haldia waterways project will transform UP’s economy,” he claimed.
He said the under-construction multi-modal terminal at Varanasi would emerge as a major logistics gateway connecting north India to eastern and north-eastern states.
By the 2019 Kumbh, people will be able to travel between Varanasi-and Allahabad by the Ganga waterway, he said, adding that a new law would be made within the next three months to facilitate the plying of sea planes in the country.
Gadkari said this sector had immense potential in UP and called on the state government to work on the promotion of second generation ethanol (made from bagasse, rice straw etc) and use of the same as a cheaper fuel for vehicles. “With 125 sugar factories, UP has a lot of potential of producing ethanol fuel,” he said, adding “This will create a lot of employment as well in rural areas.”
He said the ambitious Ken-Betwa river interlinking project will project UP in a big way by irrigating 4.50 lakh hectare land in Bundelkhand region. The minister said Rs 28,000 crore would be spent on the project in UP alone.
Earlier, potential investors gave presentations on the possibilities of development in UP. Minister of industrial development Satish Mahana assured entrepreneurs of all government help, if they invested in the state. “With long-term planning, we will make UP as one of the most preferred states,” he said.
Gadkari said 4,000-km new roads will be made in UP under the Bharatmala project, the Centre’s flagship scheme for highway construction. He said detailed projects reports (DPRs) for Rs 900 crore had also been cleared.
