Ganga Expressway takes off as Jaypee pumps in first tranche

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Deepa Jainani : Lucknow, Dec 17 2008, 23:05 IST

In a major push to the Rs 40k crore, 1047-km Ganga Expressway project, the most prestigious and possibly the most controversial project of the Uttar Pradesh government, its developer, the Jaypee group has formally committed itself to the project and has started pumping in funds to get the project off the ground.

The company, on Monday, deposited Rs 18 crore as the first installment for immediately kick-starting the process of land acquisition from the districts through which the expressway would be passing through. According to informed sources, the move assumes importance as up till now, everything about the project was confined to papers and agreements and with this, work has officially been kick-started.

At an extensive review meeting of the project monitoring committee, the state government also finalised the three link expressways that would be connecting the main Ganga Expressway. The three link rods would be the Lucknow-Bilhaur link road, the Mirzapur link and the Fatehgarh link roads. The review meeting, held under the chairmanship of industrial development commissioner V K Sharma, also decided an independent agency would be appointed to monitor and supervise the quality of the project work. For this, request for qualifications have been invited till January 2.

The 8-laned access controlled highway, which is being touted as the ‘Industrial Development Corridor’ of the state, will connect the eastern parts of the vast state to the NCR.

It may be mentioned that the project has been courting controversy ever since it was planned. Initially, opposition parties had tried to put a

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Environment-Tree Plantation

Vijay Kumar | 07-Jan-2009Reply | Forward

The opposition to Ganga Expressway reminds me of a Writ Petition filed in Delhi High Court by residents of Nizamuddin Residents Association. A related issue was the refusal of Delhi Forest Department to grant permission to Northern Railway to cut down 19 trees to facilitate improvements to the Nizamuddin Railway Station. Those days, the norm was that for every tree cut down, three trees had to be planned in compensating the environment. I was posted in Cabinet Secretariat (1996-2001) as Deputy Secretary, and was monitoring the pace of implementation of the project. In 1997, I carried out physical inspection of the area, and submitted a report to Secretary (Co-ordination) in Cabinet Secretariat. One of the directions was to plant 10 trees for every tree cut down. The report found its way to Delhi High Court, and I am told that the High Court approved of the new direction. It is high time that this direction should become an all-India norm for all projects, and much of the opposition on ground of environment will disappear. The corporates and the State Governments should also follow the norm without fail.