UP govt to tap private lenders for Rs 36,000 crore Ganga Expressway project

The 628 km project is branded as world's longest access controlled road

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to tap private lenders for funding the 628 km Ganga Expressway project, which is estimated to cost more than Rs 36,000 crore.

The mega project will be the world’s longest access controlled expressway project, when completed.

So far, the Adityanath government has sourced public sector bank credit to the tune of several thousands of crores for its various ongoing and proposed expressway projects, including Ganga Expressway, Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway and Gorakhpur Link Expressway.

For expanding the financing pool for Ganga Expressway, the Board of UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) has decided to tap loans from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) licensed banking entities.

However, the private sector lenders would be expected to offer credit on the same terms and conditions, as the nationalised and public sector banks, according to UPEIDA CEO Awanish Kumar Awasthi.

Recently, the UPEIDA Board had approved the proposal to raise Rs 2,900 crore from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) for land acquisition costs of the Ganga Expressway project. Listed on the NSE and BSE, HUDCO is a central government-owned corporation under the administrative control of the union ministry of housing and urban affairs.

Ganga Expressway will entail acquisition of 6,556 hectares of land and traverse Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahar, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratagarh and Prayagraj districts.

Earlier, the UPEIDA Board had cleared the proposal of raising loans totalling Rs 5,900 crore for Bundelkhand Expressway from a consortium of banks led by public sector bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB), and also comprising Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and UCO Bank.

So far, BoB has offered loans worth Rs 4,000 crore for different expressway projects in UP, of which Rs 2,000 crore was meant for 296 km Bundelkhand Expressway, according to Bank’s zonal head and general manager Brajesh Kumar Singh.

Estimated to cost Rs 15,000 crore, Bundelkhand Expressway will link Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah districts. Last year, UP had awarded the six packages of the Expressway to successful bidders viz. Apco Infratech, Ashoka Buildcon, Gawar Construction and Dilip Buildcon.

The project will connect backward Bundelkhand region with the national capital region (NCR) via Agra-Lucknow and Yamuna expressways. The project would start near Bharatkoop at Jhansi-Allahabad National Highway (NH) 35 in Chitrakoot district and terminate near village Kudrail, Etawah on Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

Besides, UPEIDA will float a separate wing for the land acquisition, development of infrastructure and management of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor programme. It will also sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Navy for promoting the defence manufacturing sector in the proposed Corridor, which will have six nodes in UP comprising Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Aligarh and Chitrakoot districts.