Corp Bank to lend Rs 1,000 cr for 340 km stretch of Purvanchal Expressway

Yogi govt has firmed up bank and institutional loans worth Rs 8,800 cr for the Rs 23,000 cr project

Public sector Corporation Bank will bankroll 340 km Purvanchal Expressway, one of the flagship infrastructure projects of the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, with advances of Rs 1,000 crore.

So far, the state has already tied up with financial institutions, including Corporation Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB), for loans totalling Rs 8,800 crore.

The Adityanath cabinet today approved the proposal to seek Rs 1,000 crore for the Expressway, which is projected to cost Rs 23,000 crore, including land acquisition expenses.

Earlier, the state had also decided to take Rs 1,000 crore loans each from public sector lenders, Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Vijaya Bank. Since, the two banks have merged, the cabinet also approved the proposal to seek fresh loans worth Rs 2,000 crore from the merged entity, UP health minister and government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh told the media here this afternoon.

He said credit line worth Rs 7,800 crore from PNB for the project had already materialised.

Meanwhile, Awanish Awasthi, the CEO of nodal agency UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), told Business Standard, additional loans worth Rs 1,500 crore were in pipeline.

After Adityanath came to power in March 2017, the government had mooted to fund the project out of budgetary provisions, however later it was decided to take loans from financial institutions for the project, which is estimated to be ready by August 2020.

The Expressway has been divided into 8 packages for faster completion. According to Awasthi, the civil works are estimated to cost Rs 11,216 crore plus Goods and Services Tax (GST).

About 4,332 hectares would be acquired for Purvanchal Expressway, which traverses nine districts, namely, Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. In January 2019, the state had cleared the proposed 91 km Gorakhpur Link Expressway project, estimated to cost an additional Rs 5,555 crore, to link Gorakhpur with Purvanchal Expressway.

The Expressway will provide seamless connectivity between Eastern UP to the National Capital Region (NCR) via the operational Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Agra-Greater Noida Yamuna Expressway.

Purvanchal Expressway will have an emergency airstrip for Indian Air Force (IAF) jets at Kurebhar (Sultanpur). Currently, Agra-Lucknow Expressway has a 3.3 km long runway at Unnao for allowing landing and takeoff to IAF fighter planes during emergency.

Meanwhile, another mega Bundelkhand Expressway is proposed by the Adityanath government to connect the arid zone with the state hinterland. It would traverse Jhansi, Banda, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah districts. It is pegged to cost Rs 14,000 crore and require 3,642 hectares, of which nearly 2,200 hectares had so far been acquired.

Besides, UP will develop 600 km Ganga Expressway, which is proposed as the world’s longest access controlled expressway. It would link Prayagraj (Allahabad) with Western UP and require acquisition of 6,556 hectares of land and traverse 12 districts viz. Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahar, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratagarh and Prayagraj. It is expected to cost Rs 36,000 crore and link the dry region with the hinterland.