To boost the economy and generate employment, specially for migrant workers, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya laid the foundation stones and dedicated to people 96 projects worth over Rs 2068.26 crores on Tuesday.

Releasing a book on the occasion, Maurya said that the projects, spread across the state, would emerge as a milestone in UP’s development.

The deputy chief minister laid the foundation stones of 79 projects, including 60 river bridges and 19 rail over bridges (RoB) with a budget of over Rs 1668.04 crores, and also dedicated to people 17 projects that included 12 river bridges and five RoBs worth Rs 400.20 crores at the PWD auditorium in Lucknow.

“During the three years of Bharatiya Janata Party regime in UP, a record number of bridges, RoBs, roads, state highways have been constructed to boost the infrastructure and add pace to development,” he said and claimed that several projects lying incomplete were also completed during the 36-month rule of the present BJP government.

“Besides Bridge Corporation, which construct bridges of 60 meters and above, a large number of shorter bridges were also constructed by the public works department (PWD. I have asked officers that all projects started on Tuesday be completed in a record time without compromising with the quality,” the deputy chief minister said.

Maurya said that discrimination could not be done on development and hence the government took up projects for the welfare of 23 crore people of the state.

“Of the projects started on Tuesday, six each are at Ayodhya,  Basti and Prayagraj ranges, 11 each at Bareilly and Gorakhpur ranges, five each at Agra, Chitrakoot, Devipatan, Lucknow ranges, three each at Jhansi, Varanasi and Moradabad ranges, four in Kanpur, 10 in Meerut, 12 in Saharanpur and one at Mirzapur range. This clearly indicates that development projects have been taken up across the state,” the deputy chief minister claimed.