News Analysis India

Tag: UP development

  • PM Modi in Bundelkhand on Friday, to lay foundations of projects worth Rs 6,250 crore

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW:  has turned his focus to Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2022 assembly polls. On Friday, the PM will land in Bundelkhand to launch welfare projects worth Rs 6,250 crore.

    After inaugurating the 341-km Purvanchal Expressway in Sultanpur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will lay the foundation of the Rs 400-crore UP Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) project in the Jhansi node in the presence of all three armed forces service chiefs.

    Executed by Bharat Dynamics Ltd, a plant to produce propulsion systems for Anti-Tank Guided Missiles would be set up under the project in the Jhansi node of UPDIC. Moreover, giving a push to the ethos of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ in the defence sector, the PM will formally hand over indigenously designed and developed equipment to armed forces service chiefs,” a statement from the PMO said. 

    This includes handing over of HAL-designed and developed Light Combat Helicopter to Chief of the Air Staff; drones and UAVs designed and developed by Indian start-ups to Chief of the Army Staff, and DRDO-designed and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) manufactured advanced electronic warfare suite for naval ships to the chief of naval staff.

    Around 5 pm, PM Modi will dedicate multiple initiatives of the defence sector at ‘Rashtra Raksha Samparpan Parv’, which was flagged off by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday as part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations. 

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    Modi will also lay the foundation of the 600 megawatts (MW) ultra-mega solar power park and the Atal Ekta Park in Jhansi. The park has been built at a cost of more than Rs 11 crore and is also spread across an area of about 40,000 square meters. The park will also house a library, as well as a statue of the BJP stalwart and former PM, built by the renownedsculptor Ram Sutar, the man who built the Statue of Unity.

    The PM will also launch the NCC alumni association to provide a formal platform to enable NCC alumni to reconnect with NCC. A former NCC cadet, Modi will be enrolled as the first member of the association, which is touted to assist in “nation-building”. At the same time, Modi will flag off the national programme of simulation training for NCC cadets to scale up simulation training facilities for all three wings of NCC.

    In addition, the Prime Minister will also make a visit to the district of Mahoba. There, he will inaugurate multiple projects, including the Arjun Sahayak Project, Ratauli Weir Project, Bhaoni Dam Project, and the Majhgaon–Chilli Sprinkler Project.

    The cumulative cost of these projects is more than Rs 3,250 crore and their operationalisation will help in the irrigation of around 6,500 hectares of land – in the districts of Mahoba, Hamirpur, Banda, and Lalitpur – benefitting lakhs of farmers in the area. These projects are also expected to deliver drinking water for the entire region.

    During the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the BJP had got a thumping victory after blowing the poll bugle from Mahoba. There are 19 assembly seats in the Bundelkhand region and the BJP had won all the seats in the last assembly elections.

  • UP in fast track of development with largest network of expressways 

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With the inauguration of Purvanchal Expressway on Tuesday and two expressways — Agra-Lucknow and Yamuna– already functional, Uttar Pradesh has shot into a fast track of development, employment opportunities and expanding industrialization.

    With four more expressways — Gorakhpur link, Bundelkhand, Ganga and Lko-Kanpur — in the offing,  two others operational in NCR, besides the upcoming six-node defence corridor, the state is set to have the largest network of expressways crisscrossing over 2,000 km in distance.

    Currently, the total expressway network in India is around 1,822 km. No wonder, the state has been given the sobriquet of ‘Expressway Pradesh’ by PM Narendra Modi.

    The newly-inaugurated  341-km Purvanchal Express will allow commuters to drive down from Delhi to the far east corner of the UP-Bihar border in a little over 10 hours.  Even the travel time between Lucknow and Ghazipur will be halved from 6 hours to 3.5 hours Once ready, the network of expressways will provide access to all corners of UP from the national capital. Besides faster commuting, the expressways will create job opportunities and ensure of growth of economic clusters around them.

    UP may be lagging in terms of social parameters like health, and nutrition but it is set to give tough competition to other states as far as infra projects especially the expressways are concerned.

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    While the Yamuna expressway, which came up in 2012, and the Agra-Lucknow Expressway that opened to the public in 2018 set the trend, the 341-km Purvanchal, 296-km Bundelkhand, 91-km Gorakhpur Link and the 594-km Ganga expressways —  are scripting a conspicuous transformation of the state.

    The network of expressways, interlinked, will bring the backward regions of the state closer to not only state capital but also Delhi and beyond, opening up markets and giving a big boost to socio-economic development in the region,” says economist Dr Arvind Mohan.

    According to senior UPEIDA officials, there is a proposal to connect the Purvanchal Expressway to Buxar in Bihar from Ghazipur. The said Expressway is likely to be expanded to eight lanes till 354-km from the current length of 341-km.

    “We have received a proposal from the Bihar government and are considering it. Once this happens, not only eastern UP but Bihar too would get connected to Delhi through this road network,” a senior UPEIDA official said.

    This will spur economic activity in eastern UP, bring investment and jobs,” said Awanish Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, and UPEIDA CEO. 

    The four-lane Bundelkhand Expressway is likely to be completed by March next year, almost a year before schedule and just ahead of the 2022 UP assembly elections. It will start at Chitrakoot and pass through Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya, it will end at Etawah where this expressway will join Agra-Lucknow Expressway. 

    Not only will it bring the remote areas of the region to the expressway network, but it will also drastically cut down the travel time. The travel time between Delhi and Chitrakoot district in Bundelkhand will come down to eight hours from 12-14 hours now via the Yamuna, Agra-Lucknow, Purvanchal and Bundelkhand expressways. Currently, there is no direct road link between Delhi and the Bundelkhand region.

    The grid will be completed with two more expressways — the Gorakhpur Link Expressway and Ganga Expressway.

    The four-lane, Rs 5,876-crore Gorakhpur Link Expressway will connect Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ambedkarnagar and Sant Kabirnagar. 

    The six-lane Ganga Expressway will connect Meerut with Prayagraj (Allahabad). The land acquisition for this largest, over 600-km, expressway is underway. 

    While work is underway on the expressways, UPEIDA is also working on creating industrial hubs around the area. Work is also underway on the defence corridor project, where land is being allotted to defence companies to set up their manufacturing unit.

     

  • 2022 UP polls: PM Modi chooses Purvanchal for development projects  

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Giving a robust push to the development of Purvanchal (eastern UP) ahead of the 2022 electoral battle, Prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated nine medical colleges through a video link in Siddharthnagar district in Gorakhpur division followed by the launch of Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission in Varanasi, his Parliamentary constituency, on Monday.

    While the political pundits believe that by choosing Siddharthnagar and Varanasi to inaugurate the projects, PM Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath wanted to give a political message to the people of Purvanchal in poll-bound UP.

    The importance of Purvanchal can be gauged from the fact that within a span of five days, it was the second visit of the Prime Minister to Hindi heartland’s eastern region. On October 20, the PM had come down to Kushinagar, the land of Budhha’s salvation, to inaugurate the state’s third and country’s 87th international airport.

    Moreover, the PM also dedicated welfare projects worth Rs 5229 crore to the people of Varanasi. These whirlwind visits of the PM to Purvanchal could be a reflection of him holding the reins of the 2022 electoral battle with a focus on eastern UP.

    Built at a cost of Rs 2,329 crore, the nine medical colleges, inaugurated on Monday, are situated in the districts of Siddharthnagar, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, and Jaunpur.

    Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union health and family welfare minister Mansukh Mandaviya were also present during the inauguration ceremony at Siddharthnagar and Varanasi.

    Addressing a public gathering in Saddharthnagar, the PM claimed that the upcoming medical infrastructure would fulfill the dreams of a healthy India.

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    “They (medical colleges) are a gift to the people of the state,” said the PM claiming that those nine colleges would create over 5,000 employment opportunities and around 2,500 hospital beds

    “Earlier governments left the people of ‘Purvanchal’ to suffer from diseases like life-taking Japanese encephalitis but now it will become a medical hub of northern India,” Modi said.

    The Prime Minister also alleged that previous governments were only “filling their family lockers” and earning for themselves. “But our priority is to save the poor’s money and provide them with facilities,” he averred.

    Of the nine medical colleges, eight have been sanctioned under Centre-sponsored schemes for the “establishment of new medical colleges in each district and referral hospitals”. The medical college in Jaunpur, on the other hand, has been made functional by the Uttar Pradesh government through its own resources.

    Later in Varanasi, listing out his government’s achievements in the past seven years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated his charge that previous governments were responsible for not developing adequate and quality medical infrastructure in the country.

    He claimed that healthcare was just a “source of income” for several parties as they looted the people of India for their own benefit. The Prime Minister also mentioned the milestone of inoculating more than 100 crore people against the deadly coronavirus and thanked healthcare staff and frontline workers for their efforts, saying the campaign of ‘Sabko vaccine, muft vaccine’ was going ahead successfully.

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    He again gave a push to ‘Atmanirbhara Bharat’ and ‘Vocal for Local’, asking people to buy and use made-in-India products during the upcoming festive season. It is said that the path to Lucknow goes through Purvanchal. It is an issue of BJP’s prestige as the constituency of both PM Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath fall in eastern UP.

    Purvanchal contributes around 33% of seats to the UP Assembly of 403. It has 164 assembly segments across 28 districts. In the last assembly elections in 2017, BJP had got a landslide victory by bagging 115 of 164 seats, whereas Samajwadi Party had got 17, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 14, Congress two, and others 16.

    What is more, BJP had got maximum seats from Purvanchal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “In the wake of Lakhimpur Kheri violence and the consistent farmers’ unrest in western UP, BJP is now concentrating on Purvanchal to make up for the possible losses of western UP by winning in Purvanchal,” says JP Shukla, a prominent political commentator.

    Moreover, the BJP is trying to balance the caste equations in eastern UP by aligning with smaller caste-based groups as Apna Dal of Anupriya Patel, and NISAHD Party of Dr. Sanjay Nishad as part of Mission UP.

  • UP planning to set up electronic park, project likely to attract Rs 50,000 crore investment

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to develop an electronic park to manufacture electronic accessories in Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) area.

    Earlier, the state government has also announced a toy park, film city, medical device park, and leather park to be set up in the region.

    According to YEIDA CEO Dr Arun Veer Singh, the electronic park is expected to attract an investment of Rs 50,000 crore in the region and it will provide employment to thousands of local youths.

    “The decision to develop electronic park has been taken in view of the growing interest among industry giants to set up their ventures for manufacturing electronic accessories in Uttar Pradesh. The Park is likely to come up in an area of 250 acres either in Sector 14 or Sector 10 of YEIDA near Jewar Airport”, Singh said.

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    He added that both the national and international companies making mobile phones, TVs, and other electronic goods were expected to establish their units in the park.

    The land for the various projects has been made available to as many as 1,942 investors for setting up their units since the government moved forward with the Jewar International Airport project in the YEIDA area. The 1942 industrialists will be investing Rs 17,272.74 crore to set up their factories which will employ 2.65 lakh people.

    According to YEIDA officials, large numbers of people will get employment at Jewar Airport and other projects including Medical Device Park, Film City, Toy Park, and Leather Park.

    While the Medical Device Park will come up at a cost of Rs 5,250 crore on 350 acres of land in Sector-28 giving jobs to over 20,000 people, over 15,000 will get jobs at the Film City project. Similarly, Toy Park and Leather Park will provide employment to over 10,000 youths each, said a senior state government official.

  • UP’s medical device park worth Rs 5,250 crore to come up in Noida, to generate 20,000 jobs

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With 2022 UP Assembly polls inching close, the Yogi Adityanath government is speeding up various schemes and development works to make them see the light of the day as soon as possible.

    With Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) ready with the plan for the proposed Film City in Gautam Buddh Nagar and its chairman expected to present it to the Chief Minister soon, another project on the government’s list is UP’s first medical device park for which 350-acre land has been identified also by the YEIDA.

    The park is likely to draw an investment of Rs 5,250 crore and is expected to go a long way in fulfilling the Yogi government’s job promise as it will provide employment to over 20,000 people after getting functional. The park is touted to be UP’s first and north India’s biggest such entity.

    According to a state government spokesman, the medical device park, which will have an incubation centre on a five-acre land, will prove to be a boon for startups.

    He claimed that YEIDA is roping in IIT-Kanpur for setting up the incubation centre of the park and an MoU has already been signed.

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    Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had written a letter to the Centre to request such a park be sanctioned either in Noida or Lucknow. In the letter, the CM had reportedly said that a medical park in Noida or Lucknow would be feasible in every way.

    However, he had pitched for Noida, saying that the upcoming Jewar International Airport would give direct connectivity to the medical device park.

    The CM requested the Centre to either sanction bulk drugs or medical device parks to UP. However, the reply from the central government was still awaited, sources said.

    “YEIDA has allocated 350-acre land in Sector 28, Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida). The medical device park will come up in two phases,” an official said.

    Meanwhile, according to MSME minister Sidharth Nath Singh denied that the proposed park was an election stunt. He claimed that out of the MoUs worth Rs 4.25 lakh crore already signed during the Investor Summit in February 2018, projects worth around Rs 2 lakh crore were already on the ground.