Shivpal’s ministry sitting on sanction nod, Akhilesh’s road projects suffer

UPSHA, which is under Akhilesh, is still waiting for the consent for last three months.

Two departments of UP government, one of them headed by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and the other by his uncle Shivpal Yadav, have locked horns over sanctioning of a project of construction of four-lane roads worth Rs 9,500 crore across the state.

The project to construct the roads on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model was finalised by Akhilesh and given to Uttar Pradesh State Highway Authority (UPSHA) and required consent of UP Public Works Department (PWD), headed by Shivpal.

But, UPSHA, which is under Akhilesh, is still waiting for the consent for last three months.

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Sources said the PWD was earlier left out from the construction of Akhilesh’s dream project Lucknow-Agra Expressway and now the project of 20 roads too has gone to UPSHA leaving PWD to look after district level roads only.

A meeting regarding the delay in sanction by the PWD was held at CM’s office on Wednesday and it was decided to approach Shivpal’s ministry again for the permission to construct these roads.

The list of roads includes one that will connect Mulayam’s Lok Sabha constituency Azamgarh with Mau and Ballia districts.

Sources in the government said the issue started after UPSHA was given the list of 20 roads by Akhiles. Due to paucity of funds, UPSHA tried to rope in a private investor in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

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However, no such investor came forward. Later, UPSHA approached Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for long term loans to construct these roads.

HUDCO sanctioned Rs 6,500 crore and NABARD gave consent for Rs 3,000 crore loan to UPSHA.

“Since UPSHA does not have permission to construct roads on PPP model so we sought sanction from PWD to construct these roads on EPC model. We also provided them copies of loan sanction letters about commitment for finances. We are awaiting their reply for past three months,” Navneet Sehgal, Chief Executive Officer, UPSHA said.

“I cannot comment on this subject at this moment. I don’t have much information about it,” K S Atoria, Principal Secretary, PWD said.
PWD’s Engineer in Chief A K Gupta said, “It is under consideration, but I cannot comment on this.”

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President of Engineer’s Association in PWD, Hari Kishore Tiwari, admitted that projects are being delayed due to internal differences.

“UPSHA has the authority to construct roads. Due to the internal differences, these projects are being delayed,” Tiwari stated.

Major roads which are to be constructed include Etah-Shikohabad, Akbarpur-Jaunpur-Mirzapur-Dudhi, Balrampur-Jarwal-Gonda, Mohanlalganj-Maurawan-Unnao, Panipat-Khatima, Ballia-Mau -Azamgarh, Sitapur-Lakhimpur-Pallia-Dudhi, Bahraich-Gonda-Faizabad, Garh-Meerut-Baghpat, Chadausi-Badaun-Farrukhabad, Bijnore-Gajraula, Allahabad-Salempur and Deoria-Ballia-Salmepur.

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