UP mulling setting up of a 'Plastic City'

The Uttar Pradesh government is mulling the setting up of a ‘Plastic City’ in Auraiyya district, about 125 km from the state capital of Lucknow.

Almost 30 entrepreneurs from Gujarat and Maharashtra had already evinced interest in investing in the proposed plastic cluster.

Anil Kumar Gupta, infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC), UP, said here on Friday that Auraiya was most suited to be developed as the plastic city given the availability of gas, power and land there.

Gupta was addressing the ‘CII Infrastructure Conclave 2012 – Developing Urban and Rural Infrastructure in UP’.

The plastic city is likely to be developed over 300 acres in Dibiyapur industrial area. UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) had already held deliberations with representatives of plastic manufacturers, Nabaed, Sidbi, Hudco, NTPC and GAIL.

Gupta said, “We have studied the infrastructure models adopted by other states, however, no model can be replicated elsewhere, especially UP, where socio-economic factors play a vital role in project development.”

He informed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be formed for Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project work in UP.

On roads and transportation, Gupta reiterated that in the next 4 years Lucknow-Agra Expressway would be developed as a green field project. “The interests of farmers would be protected and efforts would be made to expand the project to provide easy access of ‘mandis’ to farmers.”

The state had identified 26 existing roads for widening and pockets of industrial estates would be developed along these routes, for which work would begin in the 3-4 months. All district headquarters would be connected to Lucknow with 4 lane roads.

Meanwhile, Gupta informed 4G technology would be available in UP soon and the government was talking with the service providers. A nodal agency had been formed to facilitate this.

“Unless feeders of mofussil towns are not segregated, the issue of power losses would not be solved. We need to strengthen our distribution network to solve the problem of power shortage,” he said.

The Conclave deliberated critical infrastructure enablers, including the public-private partnership (PPP) in urban infrastructure, power sector reforms and switching to green/renewable energy, opportunities available in logistics, transportation and cold chain.