 "Akhilesh wants Lucknow Metro completed before 2017 UP polls")
Uttar Pradesh government is accelerating its flagship Lucknow Metro Rail project to ensure it becomes operational before the 2017 assembly polls.
Lucknow Metro Rail along with Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Lucknow IT City constitute the troika of the pet projects of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who wants them to be completed before seeking reelection in 2017.
While the ground work on Lucknow Metro is underway, the state government has started the process of setting of similar urban transport rail infrastructure in other major towns, including Kanpur, Varanasi, Agra and Meerut.
UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan today directed officials to speed up the Lucknow Metro Rail project, so that the first phase is completed before October 31, 2016 and that funds' constraint should not impede its progress.
He asked UP Housing Board, Lucknow Development Authority and UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) to speedily contribute their share of Rs 120 crore, Rs 40 crore and Rs 30 crore respectively to the project.
Ranjan was chairing the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) meeting here to review the progress of Lucknow Metro.
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Meanwhile, the process of inviting bids for selecting consultants for civil works related to the project is targeted to be completed within a month.
Lucknow Metro is proposed in two North-South (NS) and East-West corridors. The proposed 23 km NS corridor, which would connect Lucknow airport to the city, is being undertaken in first phase and is estimated to cost over Rs 7,000 crore. The metro pillars are being set up along the route. 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan is the principal advisor of the project.
With UP elections less than two years away, the Akhilesh government has started to tighten the screws on flagship projects spanning nine departments. The projects have been incorporated in the UP Development Agenda for 2015-16.
The nine departments are energy, industry, finance, agriculture, human resources development, medical, social, rural development and urban development.