Akhilesh proposes free land for bullet train in UP

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has offered to provide free land to the Centre if the Railways proposed a bullet train project parallel to the under-construction Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

The 302-km long expressway is the most ambitious project of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and estimated to cost nearly Rs 15,000 crore.

In a letter written to union railways minister Suresh Prabhu, Yadav said the state government was building the Greenfield expressway after acquiring land out of its own resources.

He said if the Centre decided for a railway line or bullet train project running parallel to the expressway, the state was willing to provide land for free out of its land bank.

Besides, he urged Prabhu to incorporate the proposals of the UP government in the forthcoming railway budget 2016-17.

The state had requested that the work on the Etawah-Mainpuri line be completed within this fiscal and adequate budgetary allocation be made to this end. The government had also suggested for railway projects in the Lucknow, Kanpur and Allahabad regions.

Yadav exuded confidence maximum proposals of the government be incorporated in the railways budget in the interests of the state.