UP govt to raise Rs 1,100-crore Hudco loan for Purvanchal Expressway

The govt is planning to start the project around December-January after completing the tendering process

Uttar Pradesh government has decided to speed up the Purvanchal Expressway project to showcase its industrial development agenda, as a reaction to the recent meeting of top US companies' representatives with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to explore investment opportunities.

The government has decided to mobilise funds from public sector Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (Hudco) to partly finance the mega project. The expressway project is estimated to cost nearly Rs 20,000 crore.

On Tuesday, the state cabinet approved the proposal to seek Rs 1,179 crore from Hudco for land acquisition at the rate of 10.30% per annum.

Since the project will be funded by the state government from its own resources, the loan will ease the burden to an extent and speed the project to be implemented in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.

The project has been divided into 8 packages, which will face separate bids by private companies for completion, on the lines of Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

The government is planning to start the project around December-January after completing the tendering process. Another mega road infrastructure project, Bundelkhand Expressway is being touted to start from March-April 2018.

The state government will stand guarantor for the Hudco loan and make budgetary provisions for the repayment of the loan and interest amount in 52 quarterly installments spanning 13 years after initial moratorium period of two years.

The loan will be utilised by the nodal UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) within two years for acquiring land.

Purvanchal Expressway project was originally proposed during the previous Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party (SP) regime (2012-17) as Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway.

After assuming power on March 19, the Yogi government dropped Samajwadi from its moniker. He also decided to terminate it at Ghazipur district instead of Ballia district. The Akhilesh government had even sought Rs 5,000 crore from the Centre for the expressway.

Now, the project will traverse nine districts viz Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. It would also be linked with Varanasi through a link road.

So far, almost 60 per cent of land for the project has been acquired by UPEIDA. Land acquisition alone is estimated to cost nearly Rs 7,000 crore or about a third of the total project cost.

The proposed access-controlled expressway will be about 350 km long and cut travel time between Ghazipur and Lucknow to less than 5 hrs. Its carriageway will comprise 6 lanes which will be expandable to 8 lanes.

  

The expressway is expected to boost socio-economic development along its route and give fillip to agriculture, commerce, tourism and industrial development.

Purvanchal Expressway will provide seamless connectivity between Eastern UP and National Capital Region (NCR) via 165-km Agra-Greater Noida Yamuna Expressway and 302-km Agra-Lucknow Expressway.