Lucknow With the Uttar Pradesh cabinet giving its nod to the Agra-Lucknow greenfield eco-friendly expressway last week, work on the ambitious project has started picking pace.

A public-private partnership monitoring committee (PPPMC), headed by Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anil K Gupta, on Wednesday accepted and approved the concept report submitted by Redicon India and decided that the process for the selection of the project development consultant will start soon and that a request for qualification (RFQ) and request for proposal (RFP) would be invited in a week.

Will cut travel time to three hours from the present seven

The Samajwadi Party government’s first major road project — the 270-kilometre Agra-Lucknow Greenfield Expressway — will be built through the PPP (public-private participation) mode. The green signal for the ambitious project was given at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday.

Lucknow Land acquisition hurdles have claimed yet another road project in Uttar Pradesh. The R1100-crore Agra Inner Ring Road project, which was given to Jaypee Infratech three years ago, has been shelved by the Akhilesh Yadav government because the land-for-development model for the plan was not working out.

In a meeting chaired by the UP CM on Wednesday, it was decided in principle that the concessionaire agreement between the Agra Development Authority (ADA) — the nodal agency of the housing department — and Jaypee would be cancelled and a fresh process would be initiated for the construction of the 30-km-long road on competitive bidding.

The industrial clusters based in Greater Kochi fall into the group of cities with high pollution levels, as per a study done by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in association with Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. The study had carried out an environmental assessment of industrial clusters across India, the results of which have been published online.

Under the study, a comprehensive environmental pollution index (CEPI) was calculated to help prioritise planning needs to improve the quality of the environment in industrial clusters.

The six-lane expressway will cost Rs.9,500 crore

Within a week of the 165-km Noida-Agra Yamuna expressway becoming operational, another expressway, from Agra to Lucknow, has been proposed by the Samajwadi Party Government here. A presentation of the proposed 274-km Agra-Lucknow Greenfield Expressway was made before Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said no land acquisition would be done without the consent of farmers and cases lodged against them during the previous government would be withdrawn.

"SP in its election manifesto had said that land would not be taken without the consent of the farmers. If they do not permit, the SP government will not take any decision," Akhilesh said while inaugurating the 165-kilometre-long Yamuna Expressway between Agra and Noida developed by Jaypee Group at a cost of Rs. 12,000 crore.

One can travel from Delhi to Agra in two to three hours

After encountering several road blocks and witnessing one of the fiercest farmers’ agitations over compensation of land in 2010 and 2011 that led to a police firing in which about half-a-dozen people were killed, the 165.537 km-long Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway was inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav via video-link on Thursday.

Gurgaon scores down from previous year but still on top

Noida has replaced Mumbai as the second-best realty destination this year, according to an analyst report. Gurgaon-Manesar retained the top slot. The rankings by real estate data firm Qubrex are based on eight parameters—supply and demand, likely price appreciation in three years, emerging connectivity, potential growth in economic activity, nationally reputed builders, infrastructure, land acquisition risk, etc.

Farmers living on both sides of Yamuna Expressway on Thursday wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav demanding that the expressway not be opened till the service road parallel to it is developed for connectivity to villages.

“Our main demand is that the service road along Yamuna Expressway should be constructed from Greater Noida till Agra. Till the service road is completed, the expressway should not be opened,” Virendra Dhada, Convenor of Rashtriya Kisan Union, told PTI.

Lucknow Intended to be a growth engine for Uttar Pradesh, the R14,000-crore, six-lane, access-controlled Yamuna Expressway, originally planned to be thrown open to the public before the 2010 Commonwealth Games, is finally all dressed up and ready, but unfortunately has nowhere to go.

Almost two months after the project’s concessionaire, Jaypee Infratech, communicated to the state government that the expressway was complete, it is still awaiting the state government's nod to officially declare it open. This despite the soft-spoken Akhilesh Yadav, the state’s new chief minister, having said that he strongly believed that “if we can double the speed on the roads, it can triple the pace of our economy”.

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