LUCKNOW: Hitting the ground running after a convincing win in the recently concluded Assembly elections, the Yogi government has stepped up work on its ambitious Defence Corridor project across six nodes – Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Chitrakoot and Jhansi. The project, worth Rs 20,000 crore, has been planned over 5071 hectares of land spreading across the western, central and Bundelkhand regions of the state.
The project was sanctioned by the Union government to Uttar Pradesh during the investors’ summit of the Yogi Adityanath government 1.0 in February 2018. Then, only two defence corridors were sanctioned – one for UP and the other for Tamil Nadu. The project is meant to give a push to indigenous manufacturing of military goods across six nodes. While the inauguration of the Aligarh node was done by PM Narendra Modi last year, the bids for the development of four nodes including Lucknow, Kanpur, Chitrakoot and Jhansi were invited by the department concerned a day after the announcement of the Assembly poll results on March 10.
So far, the state government has signed 74 MoUs worth Rs 4,000 crore as part of the project wherein manufacturing units of defence goods would be set up. Moreover, 74 hectares of land have also been allotted by the state government to 22 companies in the Aligarh node with a confirmed investment of nearly Rs 1,250 crore.
The UP Defence Corridor project will be developed along the Golden Quadrilateral connecting Delhi – Kolkata supported by networks of six expressways-- Yamuna Expressway, Agra – Lucknow Expressway, Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway, Gorakhpur Link Expressway and Ganga Expressway from Meerut tp Pryagaraj.
The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) was made the nodal agency to execute this project in conjunction with various other state agencies.
On March 15, the Uttar Pradesh government extended a Memorandum of Understanding with the two giants imparting technical education—IIT-Kanpur and IIT-BHU -- for the next three years as knowledge partners for increasing investment in the project.
The work on the project is already on a fast track as the foundation of the Brahmos Aerospace Unit for the manufacturing of next-generation (Brahmos-NG) missile was laid in Lucknow last year by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, while the land has been provided to Bharat Dynamics Ltd for defence manufacturing units in Jhansi.
As per the development plan, in the first phase, each node is being equipped with infrastructure and logistics including water supply, power supply, boundary walls and roads. While Aligarh is the smallest of all six nodes as it has been planned over 77 hectares of land of which 74 hectares have already been acquired and where infrastructure development is already underway, Jhansi is the biggest with a planned area of over 1000 hectares. Meanwhile, the land acquisition for the Agra node is planned in phase-2. The Kanpur node will be spread over 203 hectares, Lucknow and Chitrakoot will have 100 hectares of land each.
As per the official sources, in the bids invited for the infra development consultancy of the four nodes, the state government is also looking for architectural advisers. The project in five out of six nodes will be aligned with the National Smart Cities Mission. The development plan of the project also encompasses the evaluation of the impact of upcoming planned manufacturing units of weapons, explosives, metals, alloy, fire safety equipment, radar and sensors under the corridor on the environment.
The environmental impact will be factored in diligently and in close cooperation with all the stakeholders involved while formulating and implementing the development plan, said the sources.