Aligarh Smart City project should be expedited: Adityanath tells officials

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Tuesday said the Aligarh Smart City project should be fast-tracked as the city has to play an important role in realisation of the dream of 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat'.

He was reviewing development projects in Aligarh division -- comprising Aligarh, Kasganj, Etah and Hathras districts -- through video conferencing from his official residence in Lucknow.

Twenty-five projects worth over Rs 50 crore are underway in the division, the UP government said in a statement issued here on Tuesday.

Adityanath said that Aligarh, one of the six nodes of the ambitious Defence Corridor project, is a hub of hardware manufacturing, including the lock industry, and holds immense potential for industrialisation and job creation in the state.

The Chief Minister asked for a departmental review of the construction of a 'No Frills Airport' at Aligarh, the statement said.

The CM asked officials to prepare an action plan to take ODOP (one district one product) scheme forward.

"Like the lock industry of Aligarh, every district has some possibility or another to be explored under this scheme," he added.

Public representatives, including lawmakers, thanked the chief minister for setting up a state university in the name of Raja Mahendra Pratap in Aligarh, the statement said.

"They said that Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was the one who gave land for AMU (Aligarh Muslim University), but his name was never mentioned and not a single stone was erected in his name, but it was because of CM Yogi Adityanath that a separate university is now being set up his name," the UP government said in the statement.