UP eyeing Rs 42,000 cr under freight corridor project

Uttar Pradesh is likely to get investment worth Rs 42,000  crore under the proposed Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC).

Almost 57 per cent of the EDFC measuring 1,049 km would traverse across 18 districts of UP, thus having immense potential benefits for the state.

UP principal secretary industrial development Surya Pratap Singh said here the proposed alignment of 1,840 km EDFC, starting from Punjab, traverses UP via Khurja and ends at Dankuni in West Bengal.

He informed the state government had agreed for 5 per cent equity contribution for implementation of this ambitious project, while UP had also identified three integrated manufacturing zones along EDFC.

To develop Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC) along EDFC on the lines of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) on Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, the state government had provided a detailed concept note to the Centre.

The World Bank had identified three regional growth clusters on EDFC alignment and agreed to prepare structure plans of these clusters. The proposed regions are Auraiya-Kanpur including Kanpur Dehat, Allahabad-Varanasi including Kaushambi and Sant Ravidas Nagar and Agra-Aligarh including Mathura, Hathras and Firozabad.

Meanwhile, with potential investment of about Rs 25,000 crore till 2040, DMIC is also expected to herald unprecedented industrial growth in UP, Singh said.

After sanctioning Rs 1,000 crore worth of investment in two early bird projects of DMIC as equity, UP is now expediting these projects.

The Centre had sanctioned Rs 617 crore for integrated industrial township at Greater Noida and Rs 391 crore for multimodal logistics hub at Dadri, the two early bird projects under Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad investment region proposed under DMIC.

UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) will give 600 acres of land and 1,500 acres in second phase as equity for this early bird project.

Singh was giving a presentation before media in the presence of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who unveiled the development plans of different departments for 2013-14.