It was a historic moment when the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav pressed the button of the Piling Rig machine at the 32 PAC Battalion grounds on Friday to formally inaugurate the civil construction work of the priority section of the first phase of lucknow Metro.
The city of Nawabs till now known for its tonga rides took a giant leap in the process of development with the lucknow Metro moving from a project on paper to an on ground reality. The Chief Minister stressed that this was only the beginning and metros will be start in three cities of the state soon. He declared confidently that the project will be completed by December 2016 before the next Vidhan Sabha Elections.
The inaugural programme which was organized by the lucknow Metro Rail Corporation was telecast live at several points of the city which included Gomtinagar, Golf Culb, Hazratganj and Charbagh.
A very confident Akhilesh Yadav very categorically pointed out that with this step was a pointer to all his detractors who had been labeling him as the Worst Chief Minister and what his Government had achieved in a span of two and half years, no other State Government had accomplished.
Expressing his gratitude to the Metroman E Sreedharan under whose guidance it was possible to speed up the projectm the Chief Minister said, “This inauguration is taking place on the auspicious occasion of Navratras. Samajwadi Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on March 3 had on the same grounds at the inaugural of the depo specified the deadline when the project would be completed and we are confident that we would complete the project before the next Vidhan Sabha Elections. There are several cities in other states where the metro project never took off even after it was announced however we will complete it by December 2016” said the Chief Minister.
He said that this was only the starting and the state will witness Metros in three other cities. “No other State Government can boast of three metros in their state. lucknow has a vast population which is on the increase and Metro is the need of the hour. The lucknow Metro will also provide employment to several people in the city apart from the much required ease in traffic” said the Chief Minister. He said that while they were working on Metro they were simultaneously emphasizing on the cycle track keeping in mind the varying needs of the people.
The Chief Minister said that the other projects were also moving ahead with the same speed which included the Agra lucknow Expressway for which they were getting a lot of cooperation from the farmers.
Hinting at the various hurdles that they would face while completing the projects, the Chief Minister in a lighter vein said, “A journalist asked me recently what was my hobby and I told him that I was trying to be happy. With the launching of the civil construction work all those questions that had been raised questioning my capability have been answered and in the two and a half years the State Government has proved itself” he said.
Minister Urban Development Azam Khan while the one hand praising the young Chief Minsiter for the various achievements expressed a veiled criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in general and his cleanliness campaign in particular without naming him. “The Samajwadi Party is working on those projects which are directly associated with the comman man while some leaders only want to carry out a sweeping campaign. These leaders act like magicians and hypnotize the people and even while they perform the various magic tricks, at the end of the day their reality comes forth when they beg for money from the comman man” said Azam. The Minister said that Prime Minister should have focused on bringing in vehicles to facilitate cleaning rather than encouraging the idea of sweeping with the broom.
He said that the Samajwadi Party had made no announcements which it could not complete or be embarrassed about the fact that it could not complete the project. Commenting on the recent visits of the Prime Minister to the foreign lands said that the Samajwadi Party has instead worked on the requirements of the public.
Metroman E Sreedharan while speaking on the occasion said that the dream of the citizens of lucknow to have a World Class Metro is coming true after the inauguration was performed. “I am sure that the work will be completed with great speed and the target of completing it by December will be met. When I had met the Chief Minister in March, I had promised that the construction work will start by September and we have been able to do this with the support and the commitment of the State Government” he said. Metroman said that larsen and Toubro company which had been awarded the contract is an accomplished and resourceful contractor.
The Metroman made a special appeal to the people of lucknow to bear with the inconviniences once the work started. “The work will bring in some dislocations and my appeal to the people is that they should bear with us so that the project is completed with ease” said Sreedharan.
Consultant Externally Aided Projects State Government Madhukar Jaitley said that work will be started in Kanpur, Agra and Meerut for the Metro.The Managing Director lucknow Metro Rail Corporation Kumar Keshav presented the vote of thanks. Also present on the occasion were Minister Health Ahmad Hassan, Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan and Principal Secretary Awas Vikas Sadakant.