With an aim to develop area around Kashi Vishwanath temple as pilgrimage centre Yogi Government has set up Sri Kashi Vishwanath Special Area Development Board which will purchase 166 dwellings and vacant land around the temple besides it has converted UP State Industrial Development Corporation(UPSIDC) to UP state Industrial Development Authority(UPSIDA). The decisions were taken at the state cabinet meeting held here on Tuesday which was chaired by chief minister Yogi Adityanath. State health minister and government spokesperson Sidharthnath Singh said that a new Sri Kashi Vishwanath Special Area Development Board has been set up which will look into the expansion and modernisation of the area near the Kashi Vishwanath temple. He said already 166 private land and building around the temple area would be acquired by the government for which it has earmarked Rs 413 crores. This will be done with an intention to beautify the area.
“In 2017-18, the government has sanctioned Rs 40 crore for the purpose and in this fiscal it will provide another Rs 150 crore,” he said. In another major decision government has decided to converted UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) to UP state Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA). “This conversion will give more teeth to the Authority as well help state government to generate more revenue,” the spokesman said. With the setting up of UPSIDA , now all the eight industrial development authorities in the state would come under its jurisdiction including Noida, Greater Noida, Gorakhpur, lucknow and others. “The employees and officials of these authorities would be transferred to other authorities while retirement age of all the employees would be 60 years,” he said. The government has also approved a proposal to construct a new bus depot at Ayodhya on the bypass at a cost of Rs 7 crore. The land for the bus depot would be given free of cost to Tourism department by the culture department.
The project would be under the Ramayan circuit of centre’s Swadesh Darshan scheme in which Rs 133.30 crores have been sanctioned so far. The government has also approved the revised estimate of additional fund of Rs 271 crore for completion of the Ban Sagar canal project in Mirzapur and Allahabad districts to be completed by July next. The UP government has also approved to sanction Rs 403 crore to set up a Para Medical college at Jhansi which was dumped by the earlier governments. The government has also approved the first package of 72.785 kms of road between Hamirpur and Rath in Bundelkhand region under the World Bank sponspored UP Core Road Network Development Project. WB has sanctioned a loan worth Rs 3820 crore for the project and in this first package UP government will spend Rs 349 crore. Two government departments— law and Justice and small and medium industries— presented their budget sanction approval before the cabinet while nod was given for demolising two houses of the PWD colony in Moradabad.