Unleashing a caustic attack on the previous governments for neglecting development in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the Noida International Airport was now being built on the same land of Bhatta Parsaul which had been in the limelight for a long time for violent clashes between the police and the farmers during an agitation against land acquisition.

“The foundation stone of Asia’s largest Jewar airport in Noida was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 25. Farmers of Bhatta Parsaul happily gave their land to the government after our government was formed, that too only on twice the compensation rather than four times,” the chief minister said while attending the PM Gati Shakti North Zone Conference in Lucknow.

Speaking on the occasion, Yogi maintained that the prime minister launched Gati Shakti to provide a new impetus to infrastructure-related projects within the country.

“’Gati’ and ‘Shakti’ are symbolic to each other. PM Gati Shakti is becoming a big medium for boosting infrastructure development,” he said.

The chief minister said that the state government had integrated the projects of 16 departments and agencies in the first phase to strengthen the PM Gati Shakti platform. In the second phase, 11 departments and agencies were being identified for integration on Gati Shakti Portal, he added.

“When our government came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, the annual budget of the state was only Rs 2 lakh crore. We increased the resources of the state and efforts have been made to remove the anomalies in the state that are hindering the development of Uttar Pradesh. A single window platform has been created for investment in the state through which 340 services are available. We worked on saving lives and livelihood,” he said.

Yogi further said, "If the intentions are pure and clear, any big problem can be solved. Not a single farmer who gave land for Jewar airport is dissatisfied. We have got 3300 acres of land in the first phase. The rest of the land will also be available soon.”

Attributing better law and order situation for attracting investments in UP, the chief minister said that within a one year after the BJP government was formed in the state, the first Investors’ Summit was held which resulted in investment proposals of around Rs 5 lakh crore being received and of them, more than Rs 3 lakh crore investment proposals had fructified.

“After independence till 2017, only one and a half expressways were built in the state, while in the last four and a half years, Purvanchal Expressway has not only been completed, but Ganga Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway and Gorakhpur Link Expressway will soon be available to people. Besides, there were only four airports in Uttar Pradesh namely Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Agra till 2017. The present government started flights from Prayagraj, Kanpur, Hindon, Bareilly and Kushinagar airports and the state today has nine functional airports,” Yogi said.

Talking about the health infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh, the chief minister said that his government was building one medical college each in 59 districts of the state.

“Health infrastructure has improved a lot in the state. Investments have been attracted due to better law and order. The state is continuously progressing on the path of progress,” he said.

Union Minister of Communication, Electronics and Information Technology and Railways, Ashwini Vaishnav, said that India's development would get momentum from the infrastructure project of Rs 107 lakh crore. He said that integration of all departments in the construction of various infrastructure worth Rs 107 lakh crore and preparing a master plan would be remembered by Indians for many years to come. “This is the goal of PM Gati Shakti and the way Purvanchal Expressway and Jewar airport became the hub of multimodal logistics, they are living examples of PM Gati Shakti,: he said while virtually addressing the North Zone Conference on Prime Minister's Gati Shakti in Lucknow on Friday.

The Union minister said that airports should be connected with cargo logistics, by road and within the periphery of metro lines as inclusion of all these gave impetus to development of the state and the country.

“The recently built cargo terminal will give impetus to the ‘One District One Product’ scheme of the Government of Uttar Pradesh,” he said.