Niti Aayog to speed up funding process for Knp, Agra Metro projects

LUCKNOW: Niti Aayog, a policy think tank of the central government, has assured the Yogi Adityanath government in UP that it would expedite the process of funding for metro rail projects for Agra and Kanpur.

Niti Aayog vice- chairman Rajiv Kumar gave this assurance to a high-level delegation from UP led by Sidharth Nath Singh, the minister for MSME and Khadi, principal secretary, MSME, Navneet Sehgal and Kumar Keshav, the managing director of Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation, in New Delhi on Monday.

“The vice chairman of Niti Aayog assured us that clearance for the projects funding would be done soon and the same would be sent to the department of economic affairs,” Singh said after his meeting with Niti Aayog.

“The European Union Investment Bank (EIB) is keen to fund the two projects,” Singh said. In

2016 a three-member delegation from EIB had visited Kanpur and said it was ready to offer help for the project. It had also

acknowledged the need for a quick and easy mode of public transport in Kanpur.

The UP government had in February transferred Rs 100 crore to Kanpur and Agra for the projects after earmarking Rs 175 crore token budgetary support in this year’s budget.

The estimated cost of the Kanpur metro rail project is nearly Rs 17,000 crore (Rs 170 billion) of which the UP government will provide around Rs 1332 crore (Rs 13.32 billion) while the Kanpur Development Authority is to provide Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) for the project. The UP State Industrial Development Corporation would be required to pitch in with Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) in the first phase. For the rest, the UP government will have to seek funds from other sources.

The Agra Metro Rail Project would cost nearly Rs 12,900 crore (Rs 129 billion) of which Rs 1009 crore (Rs 10.09 billion) would be provided by the state government and Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) would have to be arranged by the local bodies.