The Centre on Monday promised to extend help to Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand offering major road infrastructure and Inland waterways between Allahabad and Varanasi before the beginning of 2019 Mahakumbh.
In a three-hour long meeting between Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath, the Centre agreed to convert 73 State highways into National Highways (NH). Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das too called on Gadkari and said that Jharkhand is getting important cooperation from the Road Transport Ministry. He also declared that 722 km of NHs worth Rs11,000 crore are being executed in Jharkhand.
Yogi and Gadkari also discussed the development of a total of 1.21 lakh km of NH and State Highways in UP and the prospect of proposed inland waterways in the Ganga and the Yamuna flowing in the region. The Centre will give Rs10,000 crore to the State as part of the Central road fund to UP.
Addressing the media jointly with Gadkari, after a review meeting of projects in the State, Yogi Adityanath said a large number of projects that were languishing will roll out now and every village in UP will witness “pakka road connectivity”. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya too was present at the meeting.
Claiming to have inherited a legacy of 1.21 lakh km of potholed highways, Yogi said the State for the first time will see a large number of projects for economically backward areas like Bundelkhand. “I feel sad to tell that when we took oath, we got 1.21 lakh km of highways full of potholes...Now, I am happy to say that the desire of people of Uttar Pradesh has been fulfilled and a large number of projects were cleared in one go today,” Yogi said.
It is for the first time a 6-lane Expressway project for Bundelkhand from Tiruwa to Jhansi via Agra lucknow Expressway has been approved. Six lanes will be built till Jhansi and from there it will be four lanes via Trikoot to Allahabad. The project has been given in-principle nod and detailed project report will be ready soon.
In addition, a consensus has been reached to construct a ring road for all major cities in UP, including Allahabad, lucknow, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Kanpur, Muradabad and Meerut. “Seven important highways have been approved for the State capital lucknow,” said Yogi, thanking Gadkari.
“Several projects were pending for years and were not moving. This meeting has resulted in rolling out of these,” he said and added that 73 State highways totalling 6,260 km will be converted into National Highways soon. Apart from this, 15 State highways will also be converted into NHs.
Gadkari on his part announced that by 2019 Kumbh Mela, pilgrims will be able to use Ganga waterway to reach Allahabad from Varanasi. The Kumbh mela, the world’s largest religious gathering held on the banks of Triveni Sangam (the confluence of the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati) in Prayag near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, is likely to witness 15 crore pilgrims in 2019.
“We will convert Allahabad to Varanasi stretch on Ganges into waterways and make it navigable so that people visiting 2019 Kumbha mela could travel between Varanasi and Allahabad easily,” Gadkari said.