Uttar Pradesh is one of the top states when one looks at the GDP share of the states in India. Uttar Pradesh being the most populous state of the country makes it a very integral part of the nation, thus the state has seen some interesting Infrastructure products. The 100-day Project of the ruling party has included really exciting projects to look forward to!

The Year 2021 saw infrastructural projects sectors like power, airports like the International Airport at Kushinagar and Ayodhya Airport whose construction is going on in full swing as well as construction of expressways.

The upcoming years will see projects that will change the face of Uttar Pradesh with the aim of Uttar Pradesh’s Government to become a $1 Trillion Economy. There are now 1,406 projects totalling to 80,224 crore that the state will be heavily investing in. Few of these projects are:

1.      Road Infrastructure:

The State is investing heavily on Road Infrastructure and Expressway projects. One of the main projects is the Purvanchal Expressway Project.

One of the largest infrastructural initiatives undertaken by the state of Uttar Pradesh is the Purvanchal Expressway. It is also hailed as one of the largest development initiatives in the undeveloped Eastern UP region.

The Lucknow-Sultanpur Road runs via Chandsarai village in Lucknow district, where the expressway begins, and ends at Haidaria village on National Highway 31, in Ghazipur district. The Expressway is 341-km long.

Some more examples will include the 296 km long Bundelkhand Expressway, which connects Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Jalaun, and Auraiya, among other places: the 519 km expressway running from Gorakhpur to Siliguri, West Bengal via Bihar. With projects like these the UP government aims at constructing around 2000 km of Expressway Network!

2.      Housing & Commercial Infrastructure:

Following the third ground-breaking ceremony (GBC-3) held in Lucknow on June 3 to encourage industrial investments, as many as nineteen expensive housing and commercial property projects totalling Rs 4,344 crore have been proposed in Uttar Pradesh.

Some of the projects are:

·         Sector-12, Greater Noida West, in the Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, is the site of a group housing project that Sublime Realtech intends to build. The project's ten towers, totalling 712 apartments, community centre, and commercial building with contemporary amenities are all included.

·         Construction of Experion Capital, by the Experion Developers which is residential-cum-commercial complex. Three phases will be used to implement the project. The project consists of three phases: Phase I includes two towers, Phase II includes one tower, and Phase III includes one tower, a building, and a commercial complex with contemporary facilities.

·         In Noida's Gautam Buddha Nagar, Paytm wants to build a commercial office building with ample ground-floor retail space. 8,000 new jobs are anticipated to be created as a result of the projected investment, which is worth Rs 504 crore. By July 2024, it should be completed and put into use.

·         In addition, ANS Developers Private Ltd. has three projects in Lucknow. With an investment of Rs. 405 crores, the first project, Valencia County, is anticipated to be operational by January 2025 and to create eight hundred employments.

These are few of the projects forth coming for the housing and commercial infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh.

 

3.      Defence Infrastructure:

The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) is developing a Rs. 4000 Cr. Project that aims to lessen the Indian Aerospace & Defence Sector's reliance on imports. The Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridors cover Aligarh, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi and Chitrakoot.

The Defence Corridor-Jhansi has collaborated with Bharat Dynamics Limited to make world-class & High-Tech defence equipment & arms. Such investments are done to provide single Window approvals and clearances to Defence and Aerospace (D&A) production facilities via Nivesh Mitra, the state's single window system.

In the past three years, since the UP-Defence Corridor's establishment was announced, the state government has received proposals from about fifty-five significant defence industry players. The nineteen companies have received fifty-five acres of land from the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), according to a formal announcement made by the State Government on August 4, 2021. These companies would spend a total of Rs 1,245 Cr. to set up their production facilities, which will employ thousands of people. Indian Diagnostic Lab made investments of Rs.400 Cr.

Anchor Research Lab LLP, one of the nineteen companies, plans to invest Rs. 550 Cr., and UPEIDA has allocated ten hectares of land. Sadicate Innovation International has also been granted access to ten hectares of land (investing Rs 150 Cr.).

Additionally, land has been allocated for the construction of factories for P-2 Logitech, Cobra Industries, Veriwin Defence Pvt Ltd., Allen & Elven, Nitya Creation India, PBM Insolation Pvt Ltd, Deep Explo Equipment Pvt Ltd, Advance Fire & Safety, and Crimson Energy Exports.

The Aligarh node has finished the land allocation procedure, and a 4-lane road is being built there for a total of Rs 10.21 Cr. In Jhansi, work is also being done on a powerhouse. A boundary wall made of pelican wire, a water supply that is guaranteed, and uninterrupted electricity (132 KVA) are all provided at the site, Connection to a 4-lane, high-traffic expressway that runs parallel to the Delhi-Jhansi and Bundelkhand Expressways is also one of the features of the project.

 

4.      Aviation Infrastructure:

The Uttar Pradesh government has made serious investments of Rs.1121 Cr. to mark 18 International Airports in the state. With the addition of sixty-three air lines, Uttar Pradesh will now have 108 new routes, bringing the total number of new routes for the state under the Centre's regional connectivity scheme.

In order to make Uttar Pradesh a shining example of "Aatmanirbhar Bharat," airports are being built at Chitrakoot, Muradabad, Aligarh, Azamgarh, and Shravasti in addition to Jewar and Ayodhya. These new initiatives will improve connectivity between Lucknow and the major cities in the nation, fostering travel, business, and commerce in the area.

By luring new investment, air travel, which includes both business and pleasure travel, is anticipated to boost the socioeconomic environment. As well as improving infrastructure, it would increase employment.

The administration is optimistic about the possibilities of aviation, especially in light of the 27% increase in inbound tourism to Uttar Pradesh during the past five years. 12.5 million foreign and approximately 1.25 billion domestic backpackers arrived in the country during this time.

The construction of high-profile airports, such as the international aviation hub at Jewar in Greater Noida, is being aided by the government. Additionally, it is constructing heliports in well-known tourist destinations including Agra, Mathura, and Lucknow.

The projects for the heliports, which will be built under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, will be given to operators following a competitive bidding process. 

In fact, the UP-tourism department has already picked five businesses to build heliport infrastructure and provide chopper services along the Agra-Meerut route. Fly Blade India, Rajas Adventure, Oasis, Shaurya Aeronautics, and Shirisha Technologies are the five businesses.

 

5.      Electricity Generation:

The Uttar Pradesh government had been working hard to find alternate electricity generation sources with an aim towards a sustainable environment. Electricity generation in India is a challenge because of prohibitive costs that are incurred to create plants to produce energy through renewable sources and not doing electricity generation through non-renewable sources like coal.

In Uttar Pradesh, power projects worth Rs. 2,723 Cr. are announced. In the last five years, 1,21 lakh villages that had not had electricity since independence have been electrified, and 1,43 crore free electrical connections have also been provided to the state's needy residents.

The recently constructed transmission/distribution substations would immediately benefit residents of Rasra (Ballia), Babina (Jhansi), Malwan (Fatehpur), Ayodhya, Azizpur (Shahjahanpur), Dulhipar (Sant Kabirnagar), Mandhata (Pratapgarh), Bilochpura (Bagpat), Mirganj (Bareilly), Kailah (Chitrak).

The government has suggested that in order to achieve the challenging 16,000 MW target, 4,000 MW of solar rooftop projects, 2,000 MW of distributed solar power, and the remaining 10,000 MW of utility/grid scale solar projects and solar parks will be used.

The government will create 20 solar cities under the proposed programme, providing rooftop installations for 10 lakh families. Agra, Ghaziabad, Jhansi, Muzaffarnagar, Mathura, Azamgarh, Ayodhya, and Aligarh are among the cities that would be transformed into "solar cities," along with Meerut, Varanasi, Bareilly, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Firozabad, Mirzapur, Kanpur, and Lucknow. The Cabinet may approve the suggested draught policy as soon as the 2017 solar policy's five-year tenure is up.

6.      Water Supply Network:

Water Supply has been a problem throughout the nation. Uttar Pradesh being the highest populated state in the country faces the problem like no one else. The state has a list of ambitious projects that will enable hundreds of villages to access to clean water for all there daily water needs.

Under the "Har Ghar Nal-Har Ghar Jal Yojna" of the Jal Shakti department, work is currently being done in 66 districts to provide piped water to homes. To date, the government has installed 36.23 lakh water connections in over 97,000 villages, but it has set a target of installing tap connections in 10.40 lakh homes within the next six months. By the conclusion of this fiscal year, 82 lakh tap connections must be delivered, as well as 2.64 crore overall.

The total assured fund for the implementation of JJM in Uttar Pradesh is more than Rs. 23,500 Crore, including this year's Central Allocation of Rs. 10,870 Crore, an opening balance of Rs. 466 Crore available with the State Government, the State's matching share of 2021–22, and the shortfall in matching State share of previous years. As a result, the Indian government is making sure that there will be enough money to carry out this transformative mission in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Additionally, Uttar Pradesh would receive Rs. 4,324 billion as a tied grant from the 15th Finance Commission for water and sanitation to Rural Local Bodies/PRIs in 2021–2022. For the following five years, funding in the amount of Rs. 22,808 crore is guaranteed.