UP Roadways

With a view to sprucing up infrastructure projects – especially roads --in the state, the UP government has approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for funds to the tune of Rs.3,000 crore.This is the first time that the UP government has got in touch with the Philippines-based bank to supplement its financial resources even as it gears up for Lok Sabha elections.
Come July and a proposal to this effect will be put forth by the state government before a screening committee of the ministry of economic affairs at the centre. According to a draft plan, 27 major district roads, spanning over a length of over 1,130 km in different districts are to be constructed with the help of fund proposed to be provided by the ADB. The roads which are proposed to be taken up are in districts like Etah, Jewar, Amroha, Fatehgarh, Gorakhpur, Unnao, Banda, Ballia, Ghazipur, Pratapgarh and Lalitpur. A senior official in public works department (PWD) said that a team from Manila (Phillipines) hedquarters of the bank has visited the state capital to discuss the blue-print of the project. Once cleared, the state would get 70% of the total project cost as soft loan from the ADB, while the rest 30% will have be provided by the state government. A formal agreement will be signed between UP government and the President of India, who will channelize the loan from ADB to UP. The funds will be used from the state coffers while it would get subsequently reimbursed. `The loans will be spread over a period of five years,'' a senior PWD official said.
Officials said that the roads have been prioritized as per the rate of economic return, technically called Economic Internal Rate of return (EIRR).The PWD sources said that it is based on the economic criteria that the roads have been decided.
Notably, the loan is not part of the state budget which the state government tabled in the UP assembly recently.Instead, it will be adjusted in the supplementary budget once the UP government gets a green signal from the ADB.
The state government,in this year budget, has focused majorly on infrastructure development. It made a budgetary provision of Rs.14,900 crore on infrastructure development, which is Rs. 3,021 crore more than what was provisioned in the 2012-13 state budget.
The allocation was more guided by an increased emphasis on capital creation, proposed to be increased by around 25%, in a bid to attract industrial investment in the state.The state government allocated a sum of Rs. 7,848 crore for construction, maintenance, repair, widening and strengthening of roads and bridges. This has been 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 includes Rs.300 crore for construction of railway over bridges.
Stress has been laid on construction of link roads and small bridges to facilitate agriculture marketing facilities, for which an amount of Rs.1,877 crore has been allocated. Likewise, a provision of Rs.250 crore has been made for connecting the villages/settlements with the pucca link roads. The state government will also be spending Rs.350 crore for construction of link roads to connect district headquarters with four-lane roads. The state highways, main district roads and other district roads having high traffic density are also proposed  to be improved at a cost of Rs.200 crore.