UP Investors Summit 2018: Small, medium investors too show intent

If stated intent and MoUs are anything to go by, Uttar Pradesh is all set for a turnaround.

“It was always said and widely felt UP required several Noida-type industrial hubs. The state appears to be on way now towards realising the objective,” union minister Manoj Sinha said after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set the tone for the summit by saying that under Yogi Adityanath, the most populous state was set to shed its ‘BIMARU’ image.

After top industrialists had pledged impressive commitments, small and medium investors followed.

There were scores of such investors who showed intent, going for the nearly 73 MoUs of Rs 1000 crore or above that had been revealed by the evening.

For instance Atul Gupta, a wheel-chair bound differently-abled investor along with his partner Harsh Garg, arrived from Meerut to ink a Rs 300 crore pact for setting up a five star hotel in Amausi industrial area.

“This is a good time to invest in the state,” said Gupta echoing a popular sentiment first expressed by the PM Modi during inaugural session.

An elated UP’s industry minister Satish Mahana told HT that the government plans to channel these investments to underdeveloped and hitherto neglected areas of the state.

“We plan to transform regions like Bundelkhand where the PM has already spoken of a dedicated defence corridor. Massive investments have been proposed in the field of solar energy. Mind you, these are firm commitments,” Mahana said. Mrityunjay Kumar, the advisor to the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, said the chief minister was taking special interest in expressways that connect Bundelkhand and eastern UP, also called Purvanchal. “The idea is to bring about a transformation and in a set timeframe,” says UP BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak. Is there a timeframe? “Yes. Already people have started saying they are feeling a change. In a couple of years, our political opponents too would admit this,” says Mahana.