Lucknow Almost five years of frosty relations between the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government gave way to new-found bonhomie on Monday when leaders of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party shared the dais at the foundation stone laying ceremony for the R 11,088-crore, 1980 mw power plant in the state.

The project, which is likely to usher in brighter days in the state in the coming years, is a 51:49% joint venture between Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, and is to come up at Ghatampur in Kanpur district.