Uttar Pradesh is all set for one of the biggest ground-breaking ceremonies (GBC) to be held at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, Lucknow, on February 19, with the government expecting more than 8,000 projects and investment to the tune of Rs 10,000 lakh crore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be the chief guest on the occasion, will also inaugurate development projects worth Rs 900 crore. “PM Modi will perform the ‘bhoomi pujan’ at the ground-breaking ceremony that the Uttar Pradesh government proposes to hold in Lucknow on February 19,” chief minister Yogi Adityanath said in his recent address to the state assembly.
Officials with the UP government confirmed that the venue for the event will be Indira Gandhi Pratishthan. “In the last Global Investor Summit held in Lucknow in February 2023, the UP government had signed several MoUs for investment worth Rs 35 lakh crore. We are now getting ready for the ground-breaking ceremony on February 19, 2024,” the official spokesperson of the government said.
Officials added that more than 8,000 MoUs amounting to Rs 10 lakh crore have already been shortlisted for the ceremony. Of the many projects which are set to hit the ground, company NIDP Developers Private Limited has topped the list of investors by proposing investment of Rs 30,000 crore in Gautam Buddha Nagar, which is expected to generate employment for 2,160 people.
NTPC Ltd has proposed investment of Rs 18,625 crore and Rs 17,985 crore in Sonbhadra, clinching the second and third position in the list and generating employment for around 2,200 and 2,100 people respectively. Other than these, GREENKO Group, Torrent Power Limited, Sify Infinit Spaces Limited, Tusco Limited, M3M India Pvt Ltd, Tata Technologies are some of the other players that have made to the list of top 20 investors in UP.
Officials said the ceremony aims to kick-start work on over 14,000 projects, spanning manufacturing, solar energy, IT and electronics, real estate, logistics, traditional and hydro sectors, along with projects for skill development and data centers. The state government had set specific targets for department-wise and district-wise projects to be started during GBC.
“So far, six districts, including Amethi, Gonda, Chandauli, Hardoi, Bareilly, and Fatehpur, have achieved their goals. Of the total projects, 286 projects, amounting to Rs 30,517 crore, will commence in Lucknow itself, generating employment for 1.5 lakh individuals. Similarly, projects in the ground-breaking include the initiation of Tata Technologies Limited’s Rs 4,174 crore upgrade for 150 ITIs, Century Pulp’s Rs 4,000 crore paper manufacturing unit in Muradabad, and Air India’s Rs 4,000 crore air cargo and logistics project in Noida,” officials said.
Initially, the ceremony was supposed to be held in September, within six-month of the GIS that was held in February and was inaugurated by PM Modi. But following other important events, including MotoGP race that was held between September 22 and 24 in Greater Noida, and UP International Trade Show in September, the ground-breaking ceremony could not be organised in time.
CM Adityanath has consistently monitored the progress of implementation of the investment proposals after GIS-2023, officials said.
On the orders of the UP CM, special arrangements have been made in order to give a hassle-free experience to the investors in setting up their projects in UP.
‘Udyami Mitra’ is a part of the project where dedicated persons have been allocated to assist the investors. “We are monitoring the projects on a day-to-day basis. An online system has been worked out and there is consistent monitoring. We have completed a selection of 125 Udyami Mitras (friends of entrepreneurs) and they will be deployed to coordinate the implementation of investment projects,” said Invest UP chief executive officer Abhishek Prakash.
So far, UP has organised three mega ground-breaking ceremonies. In the third ceremony in 2022, the state government had received more than 1,400 investment proposals worth Rs 80,000 crore in various sectors, including data centre, agriculture sector, IT and electronics, infrastructure, manufacturing, handloom and textile and in micro, small and medium enterprises sector (MSME).
The first investors’ summit was inaugurated by PM Modi in February 2018 when Uttar Pradesh received proposals for investment worth Rs 4.68 lakh crore. In the past five years, proposals worth Rs 3 lakh crore have been implemented, the government official said.