UP to raise Rs 1,500 cr in bank loans for 340-km Purvanchal Expressway

Post lockdown, Adityanath govt is expediting mega infra projects

To expedite the work on its flagship 340-km Purvanchal Expressway project post lockdown, the Uttar Pradesh government will raise Rs 1,500 crore from commercial banks.

According to state nodal agency UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), of total loans worth Rs 1,500 crore, Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 500 crore will be sourced from Bank of India and Central Bank of India respectively.

The work on the various ongoing expressway projects, including Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway and Gorakhpur Link Expressway, had come to a standstill in March following the imposition of the pan-India covid-19 lockdown.

However, the civil works on these mega infra projects, totalling about Rs 45,000 crore, were gradually restarted from the month of April in the non-hotspot stretches. The government is proactively providing jobs to the migrant workers in these big projects.

With the fresh loan tranche of Rs 1,500 crore, total loans sanctioned by the different banks for Purvanchal Expressway, which is estimated to cost Rs 23,000 crore, has touched Rs 10,500 crore.

The UPEIDA Board had recently approved the proposal of raising Rs 1,500 crore from banks, so that the construction work continues unabated. The Yogi Adityanath government is targetting to launch Purvanchal Expressway before the crucial 2022 assembly elections as a specimen of its pro-development agenda in the backward districts of Eastern UP.

Earlier, Purvanchal Expressway was divided into eight packages and awarded to different companies for ensuring time bound completion. It runs across nine districts viz. Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur.

It would provide seamless connectivity between the backward Eastern UP districts to the National Capital Region (NCR) via Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Agra-Greater Noida Yamuna Expressway. It will comprise an emergency airstrip for Indian Air Force (IAF) jets at Kurebhar (Sultanpur).

Recently, Punjab National Bank (PNB) had extended a credit line of Rs 750 crore for Gorakhpur Link Expressway, which is estimated to cost Rs 5,876 crore. The 91 km expressway will connect Gorakhpur district, the pocket borough of chief minister Adityanath, with Purvanchal Expressway.

Meanwhile, the UPEIDA Board has decided to appoint town/planners for the development of the six nodes falling under the UP Defence Industrial Corridor according to the predetermined ‘terms of reference’. The Authority has also fixed the rates for the procurement of land for the Corridor in Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Aligarh and Kanpur districts.

Another mega Ganga Expressway, estimated to cost Rs 37,350 crore including land cost of Rs 9,500 crore, has been proposed, for which the bidding is likely to be initiated after the state cabinet nod.

Ganga Expressway will entail acquisition of 6,556 hectares of land and traverse Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahar, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratagarh and Prayagraj districts. The CM has asked officials to speed up the project.