UP government initiates move to take project out of cold storage

The Rs. 40,000-crore Ganga Expressway, held up for want of environmental clearances, could see a revival, with the new Samajwadi Party government under Akhilesh Yadav initiating moves to take it forward. At a review meeting of the project late on Friday, it was decided that the government nodal agency in charge of expressways, Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), would send a proposal for getting a no-objection certificate from the Union environment ministry. Earlier, the concessionaire of the project, Jaypee Associates, was pursuing the no-objection certificate (NoC).

An official close to the development said the rules now specify that the government arm in charge of the project needs to obtain environment clearance and not the concessionaire, as was the norm earlier. ?UPEIDA will put up the proposal before the environment ministry and once we get the approval, the agreement would be renewed with the concessionaire, after which the developer will deposit the bank guarantee again,? said the official.

With a new-found bonhomie between the SP government and the Centre, there are reasons to believe that the approval may come soon. On being asked whether the new government had given instructions to the department to revive the project, considered to be former chief minister Mayawati?s ?pet project,? an official of the industry department said, ?I have not received any indication from the chief minister that this project has to be shelved. I think infrastructure projects are for the overall development of the state. There should be no politics with them.?

It may be recalled that FE had reported in December last year that due to the inordinate delay in getting environmental clearance, the country?s longest expressway was put into cold storage as the state government had decided to return the R1,000-crore bank guarantee to concessionaire Jaypee Associates with a clause that if and when the project gets environmental clearance, the guarantee amount would be deposited by the concessionaire once again. Sources said this was done due to the uncertainty over the Mayawati government making comeback after the elections.

?There was apprehension that any new government that might come would scuttle the project,? said an official close to the development at that time, adding that the project was being considered as good as ?dead?. The 1,047-km-long expressway project, that is to run from Ballia on the eastern fringes of the state to the periphery of the national capital, was conceived by the Mayawati government immediately after it came to power in 2007.