The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh will add another feather to its cap by organising the second groundbreaking ceremony for several new projects, in Kanpur on March 8.

The second mega groundbreaking ceremony, in which foundation stones of projects worth over Rs 65,000 crore will be laid, will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at one go in Kanpur, once called the Manchester of North India.

Earlier, the state government had proposed to host the ceremony on February 27 but the date was postponed.

“We are preparing to host the ceremony on March 8 for laying the foundation stones of projects worth Rs 65,000 crore. There can be even more projects, but we are proceeding with due diligence so that all companies are on board before we announce the total value of the projects,” UP Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana said here on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary Avanish Awasthi said the second groundbreaking ceremony would be held in Kanpur on March 8 and the Prime Minister would be its chief guest.

He said that several projects of the state tourism were also in the list of the projects lined up for the second groundbreaking ceremony.

These projects are part of the Rs 4.68 lakh crore worth memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed by the Yogi Adityanath government with more than 1,600 private and public companies at the UP Investors’ Summit held in Lucknow on February 21-22, 2018.

The first groundbreaking ceremony was held in Lucknow on July 29 last year in which the Prime Minister had laid the foundation stones of about 80 projects worth Rs 60,000 crore. On the occasion, he had called upon UP to compete with Maharashtra for becoming the first state of India with GSDP of a trillion dollar.

The second groundbreaking ceremony has been delayed due to several factors, including incomplete groundwork, land acquisition and clearance hurdles.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had last year expressed displeasure over the slow pace of the follow-up of these projects and had directed officials to expedite their processing.

A large number of industrialists, investors and industry representatives are expected to participate in the March 8 groundbreaking ceremony, which also aims to put Kanpur back on the industrial landscape of UP and India. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is on an overdrive to launch projects before the Election Commission  declares the poll schedule and the model code of conduct comes into force as it would restrict the governments from launching new projects or making fresh announcements.

On February 15, Modi had laid the foundation stone of Bundelkhand defence industrial corridor in Jhansi district of UP. It is expected to attract investments of more than Rs 20,000 crore. The defence industrial corridor will have various infrastructure projects totalling over Rs 40,000 crore in the arid Bundelkhand region.

These projects were either inaugurated or witnessed foundation stone laying by the Prime Minister.