Somewhere in UP....

With its eye firmly set on the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in 2014, the Samajwadi Party government is all set to move into an over drive and set the tone for infrastructure development in the state. On Wednesday Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will inaugurate and lay foundation stones of roads, bridges and flyovers projects worth over Rs 1,100 crore from his official residence at 5 Kalidas Marg.
Government sources said that the CM will inaugurate and lay foundation stone of 62 projects including 45 bridges, 13 railway over bridges (ROBs) and four highways. Interestingly, the ROB proposed near Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) office and residence of Mayawati in Mall Avenue has not been included in the list of the projects. Akhilesh had proposed the ROB while tabling the state budget last month. The move had led to a furore in the assembly with the BSP legislators accusing the ruling SP government of targeting the opposition.
According to sources, the list includes 27 ROBs and bridges which will be inaugurated. Of this, nine are the ROBs while 18 are bridges – 13 to be constructed by the UP Bridge Corporation and five by Public Works Department (PWD). The total cost of the projects which will be inaugurated is around Rs 268 crore.
Likewise, the chief minister will be laying the foundation stone of four highways, 27 bridges (five constructed by the bridge corporation and 22 constructed by PWD) and three ROBs and one railway underpass. The total cost of the projects would be Rs.863 crore. The railway under pass will come up in Daliganj near Haathi Park in Lucknow. The other three ROBs proposed are one each in Hapur, Ghazipur and Bulandshahr. Likewise a ROB is proposed near Govindpuri railway station in Kanpur Nagar at a cost of Rs.45 crore. A ROB is also proposed in Gorakhpur under the Gorakhpur Nautanwa rail section at a cost of Rs.51 crore. Similarly, two flyovers in Rampur would cost Rs.160 crore and Rs.19 crore. A bridge proposed on the Gomti river in Rudauli Vidhan Sabha constituency in Faizabad district would cost Rs.10 crore
The state government in the recently tabled budget had allocated Rs.7,848 crore for construction, maintenance, repair, widening and strengthening of roads and bridges. This was Rs.1,204 crore higher than the budgetary provision made in the last financial year. Of the total budgetary provision made for roads and bridges, Rs.1,110 crore has been made for construction and maintenance of bridges, which include Rs.300 crore for construction of railway over bridges.