UP govt: Investors spooked by eco slowdown

Chief secretary Jawed Usmani vociferously negated suggestion that only UP projects were affected in bidding process

The Uttar Pradesh government  on  Friday blamed economic slowdown for the failure of its proposed projects in attracting investors.

The state government underlined that domestic slowdown has been impeding infrastructure projects proposed in the public private partnership (PPP) mode in the country for the last 2-3 years.“Even the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been facing hiccups in its PPP projects. Subsequently, the Centre has now decided to adopt Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract route for undertaking fresh projects,” state chief secretary Jawed Usmani told newspersons on Friday evening.He was briefing the media on the decisions taken by the state cabinet meeting held earlier.

“Currently, the investor sentiment is down. The infrastructure projects are long term projects with long gestation periods. As a result, the investors are reluctant to put their money in PPP projects,” he claimed.

Usmani vociferously negated the suggestion that only UP projects were getting affected in bidding process and that the disinterest emerged due to the perceptive poor law and order situation in the state.Recently, the Agra-Lucknow highway project, was estimated to cost nearly Rs 10,000 crore and proposed on the PPP model, but failed to garner investors although it was one of the flagship projects of the incumbent Akhilesh Yadav government.It was also seen as a mega project to counter the operational Greater Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway project, which was conceptualised during Mayawati's regime.

Another project, which witnessed poor investor response was the proposed IT City project in Lucknow.