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Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is betting big on the Lucknow Metro Rail and IT City projects in the state capital to boost ‘Brand UP’ amongst the investor community.
The success of the two flagship projects would not only fuel economic growth in the region, but would also instil confidence amongst investors about timely completion of such complex projects.
The 100-acre IT City is a part of the mega CG City, being planned on Lucknow-Sultanopur highway across 846 acres on Chak Gajarai (CG) Farm, owned by the state animal husbandry department.
HCL arm Vamasundari Investments has been roped in to develop the IT City under the public private partnership (PPP) model.
Addressing a news conference on Monday evening, UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan said CG City would not only generate jobs, but fetch international reputation to the state capital.
The mega CG City project includes IT City (100 acres), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) (50 acres), medicity (100 acres), super specialty hospital/cardiology centre (20 acres), UP Administrative Academy (25 acres), diary processing plant (20 acres), dairy development (5 acres), CSI Tower (5 acres), cultural school (10 acres) and modern township over 511 acres.
He informed the government has made available 320 acres to different departments and 526 acres to Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) for these projects.
Yadav envisages the IT City to be developed on the lines of similar hubs in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Besides, the CM has also lapped up the much delayed Lucknow Metro project, which had been hanging fire for the last several years. It could not move beyond the route alignment stage and funding model to be adopted.
The proposed 23 km North-South corridor, which would connect Lucknow airport to the city, would be undertaken in first phase and is estimated to cost about Rs 7,000 crore.
The state has allocated Rs 95 crore to the project in the 2014-14 budget.
The option of external funding from various agencies is being explored, including Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), European Investment Bank (EIB) etc.
The work on this corridor is likely to begin from September 2014 and the first track is expected to be operational in the next three years, if things fall as planned.
On March 3, Yadav had laid the foundation of Lucknow Metro depot near the airport. Earlier on June 27, 2013, the state government had given its formal nod to the proposed LMRC project.
