 "Akhilesh Yadav")
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today announced to develop Noida as an international financial hub in the country.
Addressing industrialists, entrepreneurs and bankers here, Yadav claimed the government had mooted a similar proposal about two years back, but the plan could not be put to work.
"Now, we are willing to take necessary steps for developing Noida as a financial hub. We are also open to taking the help of the Centre in this regard as the Prime Minister (PM) also comes from UP," he said speaking at 'Uttar Pradesh @ Double Digit Growth - Unfolding Investment Opportunities" conclave organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Industry of India (Assocham).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents Varanasi constituency in Parliament.
In his address, Yadav pitched UP as the ideal investment destination as the state was moving towards double digit growth with several development and infrastructure projects already underway.
He listed projects including Lucknow Metro Rail, Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Lucknow-Ballia Expressway to buttress his point.
He said work on several metro rail projects in Lucknow, Kanpur, Noida and Ghaziabad was on, while other states were grappling with single metro project at the most. "Soon, we would launch the metro rail project in the PM's constituency of Varanasi as well."
Referring to the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, Yadav said two years back, the road infrastructure projects proposed under public private partnership (PPP) model through the build operate transfer (BOT) route were not getting takers in India due to the prevailing economic condition and refusal of banks to bankroll such projects.
"At that time, the state government had decided to go ahead with the project out of its own resources. Today, it is touted as the biggest access control expressway project in India, which did not face any land acquisition hurdles, since it was done by mutual consent," he added. The expressway is expected to be complete before the end of this calendar.
Meanwhile, Assocham President Sunil Kanoria suggested setting up of dispute resolution mechanism for industry as a proactive industry-friendly initiative in UP.
"The government is making good progress in power generation, but it should also give due attention to the distribution side," he added.
UP industries principal secretary Mahesh Gupta said exports from UP had risen from Rs 38,000 crore in 2012 to about Rs 90,000 crore at present.
"The state government is in the process of announcing several new policies for industries," he said adding the upgraded single window system would be ready in another 20-25 days.
