Prime Minister Narendra Modi lay the foundation for Noida International Airport in Jewar on Thursday, and it is just one of several infrastructure projects that Yogi Adityanath’s government is rushing to complete before the next Assembly elections. While the Kushinagar airport has been opened, the others are still under construction. The Purvanchal Expressway was also recently opened by the Adityanath administration.
AIIMS, Gorakhpur
The cornerstone for this Rs. 1,100-crore project was laid on July 22, 2016. Before the BJP took power in Uttar Pradesh, the PM lay the foundation stone for an institute in Adityanath’s traditional constituency, which had long fought Japanese encephalitis and seen a dispute over the deaths of children at a hospital purportedly owing to a shortage of oxygen. Work began after Adityanath was elected Chief Minister in 2017, and the OPD facility opened in early 2019. More academics and staff are being appointed.
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Ganga Expressway
The project will cost Rs 36,230 crore, and the foundation will be placed next month. The 594-kilometer project would connect the districts of Meerut, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Sambha, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, and Prayagraj, and will extend from Uttarakhand to the Bihar border. A similar BSP project was stymied by environmental issues. The proposed alignment of the project was certified by a State Level Environment Impact Authority on November 20. Adityanath claims to have acquired over 80% of the land and stated on Friday that the foundation would be laid by the end of the month.
Kashi Vishwanath Dham
The foundation for the Rs 700-crore project was laid on March 8, 2019. One of PM Modi’s most ambitious initiatives in Varanasi is the extension and enhancement of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple compound, as well as the building of facilities along the corridor. Work is pending in the region surrounding Manikarnika and on a jetty near the Ghat, with Modi’s inauguration possibly slated for December 13.
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Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor
On November 18, 2021, the foundation was laid for the first project in the Jhansi node, which would cost Rs 20,000 crore. Modi unveiled the project during an investor forum in Lucknow. The objective is to produce defence equipment in the country, including weapons, sensors, planes, and helicopters. Six nodes have been identified in Uttar Pradesh: Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Aligarh, and Chitrakoot. These nodes would be connected by expressways and will bring together medium, small, and micro enterprises. The government claims to have signed 32 MoUs and is in the process of selecting land (acquisition is underway in Jhansi and Aligarh). In Kanpur, there are proposals for a defence park. The Prime Minister recently laid the foundation for a Rs 400-crore Bharat Dynamics Ltd factory that would produce anti-tank guided missile propulsion systems.
Bundelkhand Expressway
The cornerstone for the Rs 14,716-crore project was laid on February 29, 2020. According to the Adityanath government, 76 percent of the construction on the 296-kilometer highway connecting Etawah, Auraiya, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Banda, Mahoba, and Chitrakoot has been finished. While it aims to open it before the polls are called, making it the first expressway project it has conceptualised and finished, unlike the Poorvanchal Expressway, on which construction began under the SP, sources say the project would take at least another two months. Even still, if the highway is completed before the elections, the BJP intends to gain electoral benefits. Apart from assisting the underdeveloped region, the project is vital since the defence corridor is designed to run alongside it.
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Kushinagar Airport
The project would cost Rs 260 crore and will be completed on October 21, 2021. This is one of the most significant infrastructure projects done by the Adityanath administration. It was, however, conceived much earlier, as the BSP government’s dream project from 2007 to 2012. The airport, which encountered opposition over land acquisition, was just inaugurated by Modi as part of the Buddhist Circuit, with the inaugural aircraft bringing monks from Sri Lanka. On Friday, a direct flight from Delhi began, and flights to Mumbai and West Bengal are set to begin on December 18.
Kanpur Metro
The cornerstone for this Rs 13,000-crore project was laid in October 2016. PM Modi lay the foundation stone for the 32.5-kilometer line soon before the 2017 Assembly elections, with then-CM Akhilesh Yadav in attendance. Because polls were called, work couldn’t begin right once, and the project is credited to both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party governments. Adityanath lit a trial run on the 9-kilometer track between IIT Kanpur and the Motijheel region earlier this month, and sources say the government hopes to start commercial service in this section with six trains by mid-December, ahead of the 2022 election notification.
