Adding a new leaf to the history of governance in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government held its Cabinet meeting in the Kumbh Mela Area on Tuesday and took several decisions to beautify the Sangam city and install statues of saints related to Lord Ram besides constructing the world’s longest Ganga Expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj.
The government also approved the much-hyped Bundelkhand Expressway and the Gorakhpur Link Expressway to connect with Purvanchal Expressway.
The Cabinet meeting started after around 30 ministers took a dip in the Sangam and had darshan of the century-old Akshay Vat and Saraswati Koop.
Yogi, who himself briefed the media about the Cabinet decisions, said that it was decided to approve the 600-kilometre Ganga Expressway connecting Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Budaun, Shahjahanpur, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj.
He said it would be a four-lane access control greenfield expressway which could be expanded to six lanes.
The Chief Minister said the proposed Ganga Expressway would be laid out on 6,556 hectare land and have eight rail over bridges and 18 flyovers and constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 36,000 crore.
Earlier in 2007, the then Mayawati government had launched a 1047-km access controlled eight-lane Ganga Expressway running along the rive Ganga. The expressway was slated to connect Greater Noida to Ballia, connecting major cities like Varanasi, Mirzapur, Allahabad, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Unnao, Kanpur, Kannauj, Hardoi, Farrukhabad, Shahjahanpur, Budaun, Bulandshahr etc. But, the High Court had stayed its construction as there was no environmental clearance for the project at that time.
The Cabinet also approved the much-hyped 297 km-long Bundelkhand Expressway. For this expressway, 3,641 hectare land would be required and the total cost would be around Rs 14,716 crore. Starting from Etawah, the expressway will connect with Agra-Lucknow Expressway and pass through Auraiya, Jalaun, Mahoba, Hamirpur and Banda to culminate at Chitrakoot.
The Cabinet also approved Gorakhpur Link Expressway to connect with Lucknow-Ghazipur Purvanchal Expressway. The 90-km-long link expressway will pass through Azamgarh and Ambedkarnagar and its total cost is expected to be Rs 555 crore.
The Chief Minister said that a statue of Maharishi Balmiki, who scripted Ramayana, would be constructed at his ashram near Chitrakoot on Prayagraj highway. The government will also set up a research institute and beautify the place.
Similarly, the government will install a statue of Lord Ram and Nishad Raj Milan at Shringaverpur in Prayagraj besides constructing a park and beautifying the area.
The government also decided to beautify Bharadwaj Muni ashram in Prayagraj. Recently, a statue of the Muni was unveiled by President Ram Nath Kovind.
In another decision, the Cabinet gave its nod to AIIMS-like facilities for doctors and employees of state-run Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow.
The SGPGIMS employees had threatened to strike work over the disparity in their emoluments as compared to AIIMS staffers.
Besides, to make the functioning of Mandi Samiti more transparent, the government made a rule that registered farmers would be made chairperson and vice-chairperson of mandi samitis.
The government also decided to provide 3,791 registered leprosy-affected people in the state with houses under PM Awas Yojana as was done for Musahar and Tharu communities.
The Cabinet also passed a condolence resolution on the sudden demise of former convenor of National Democratic Alliance and former Union minister George Fernandes and observed a two-minute silence before the meeting started.
Later addressing media persons, Yogi said that Kumbh Mela had proved that change had taken place and the congregation had turned out to be a unique event.
“We thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his effort and support to the state government for making this Kumbh a grand success and popularising it globally due to which envoys of 70 countries participated in it,” Yogi said.
