PM GatiShakti spurs planning, implementation of Ayodhya bypass: Govt

The 67.57-Km Ayodhya bypass project in Uttar Pradesh was planned and implemented under the PM GatiShakti initiative, the commerce and industry ministry said on Friday.

It said that the project would facilitate uninterrupted freight flows and decongest Ayodhya.

It "will cover key districts such as Lucknow, Basti, and Gonda. This project will facilitate improvement in connectivity to economic, social and logistics nodes, including tourist and pilgrim sites, across these three districts," the ministry said in a statement.

Ayodhya is situated between two economic hubs (Lucknow and Gorakhpur) and major commodities such as leather, engineering goods, building materials, iron and steel, pass through the city therefore the construction of this bypass route will facilitate uninterrupted freight flows and decongest the city.

An idol of the new Ram Lalla was consecrated at the Ayodhya temple on January 22, a landmark event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who also gave a clarion call to go beyond the grand mandir's construction to build the foundation of a "strong, capable and divine" India of the next 1,000 years.

The Ayodhya bypass project was evaluated during a meeting of NPG (national planning group), which was set up under the initiative.

The inter-ministerial NPG meets every fortnight and appraises infra projects to ensure multi-modality, synchronisation of efforts, and comprehensive development in and around the project location.

The initiative was launched to develop an integrated infrastructure to reduce logistics costs. All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investments of over Rs 500 crore are routed through the NPG.

The NPG's approval is required before clearance of the project by the Public Investment Board (PIB) or Department of Expenditure under the finance ministry.

The maximum projects recommended so far by the group are related to roads, railways and urban development.