CM launches civil construction work for Kanpur Metro priority section

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state was committed to uplift of the people and for this it was focusing on development and Kanpur was on its priority.

Launching the civil construction work for the Kanpur Metro’s priority section from IIT-Kanpur to Moti Jheel with ‘bhoomi pujan’ at the main gate of IIT-K here on Friday, Yogi Adityanath said with the completion of the metro rail project, the industrial city of Kanpur would no more be known as a city of sick industries.

He said the metro rail would be inaugurated on November, 30, 2021.

One of the most ambitious projects of the industrial city, the metro rail will reduce the pollution levels,

Addressing the gathering, Yogi Adityanath said metro trains would soon run in Kanpur, adding that he had asked the authorities to complete the first phase of the work at the earliest.

The Chief Minister said that strict financial monitoring was being carried out by his government and there was full transparency in the working and the money was spent rationally for the benefit of the people. He added that very soon, UP would get Bundelkhand and Ganga Expressways.

Hitting out at the working of the previous Samajwadi Party government, the Chief Minister said it ratified projects without even clearing the detailed project report (DPR) and in 2016, it launched the Purvanchal Expressway project even without acquisition of the required land. He said the previous tenders of the project were cancelled and the BJP government gave contract for the expressway project at lower cost and was able to save Rs 3,000 crore.

Yogi Adityanath said in the past 15 years, Kanpur had been totally ignored and overlooked by the previous regimes but the BJP government was committed to the development of this city.

He said that the metro line was being constructed in Kanpur at an investment of Rs 11,000 crore.

He said the BJP government had completed all formalities before the foundation stone laying ceremony and the entire project would be completed within the stipulated time-frame.

The Chief Minister said the previous government did not extend the benefit of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to even a single person while his government had extended the benefit to over 27 lakh people without any bias.

The Chief Minister said his government was providing air connectivity in all major cities and there were seven airports in UP and one of the largest airport was being constructed at Jewar in Noida while his government had acquired land for an airport in Ayodhya.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that in UP, metro line of more than 85 km had already been laid out.

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) Managing Director Kumar Keshav said preparations had been made to build the pillars of the metro overbridge from IIT to Kalyanpur in the first phase.

The feasibility study for the project was carried out by the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) in June 2015, he said, adding that it was done to curb traffic congestion, which was hampering the growth, development and prosperity of Kanpur.

“There is no problem in this two-kilometre stretch. The target is to complete the Metro project up to Moti Jheel in the next two years,” Keshav said.

After the renaming of Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation Limited as Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited, the civil construction work for the priority corridor had now begun, a press release issued by UPMRC’s public relations department said.

The contract to build the viaduct of an 8.728-km-long elevated section of the priority corridor was awarded to Afcons Infrastructure Ltd on September 13 and the piling work began in full swing from Friday, Keshav said.

The corridor was expected to be completed by December 2021, he added.

The 8.728-km-long priority section will have eight stations — IIT-Kanpur, Kalyanpur Railway Station, SPM Hospital, CSJM University, Gurudev Chauraha, Geeta Nagar, Rawatpur Railway Station, Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital (Moti Jheel).

The estimated expenditure for the section is about Rs 2,000 crore and it is expected that metro operations on the priority corridor will commence within two years.

The UPMRC had earlier completed the work of the Lucknow Metro North-South Corridor project within a record time of four-and-a-half years, the fastest ever constructed and executed metro rail project in the country.