ADB presents plan for development in 19 UP districts

Multilateral finance and development agency - Asian Development Bank (ADB) presented a mega infrastructure investment plan for the development of 19 districts across  six regions of Uttar Pradesh with an estimated investment of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The plan includes industrial park infrastructure, urban development, power, logistics, road, railway and airport in Bundelkhand, Central, Eastern, Northern, South Western and Western regions of the state.

The ADB identified 242 multi-sectoral projects   for the six zones. The agency said as per needs investment for road infrastructure will be enhanced by 50 percent, urban areas by 14 percent, 14 percent for railways and airports, 11 percent for logistics, 7 percent for industrial park infrastructure and one percent for power sector.

The draft report presented by ADB to UP government emphaszised on the need for addressing problems of regional disparity and increasing contribution of manufacturing in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

The report also recommended for promoting high-value added jobs in organized sectors. Districts identified by ADB are Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida), Ghaziabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Ferozabad, Kanpur, Unnao, Lucknow, Sonbhadra, Allahabad, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Amroha, Bijnor, Moradabad, Jhansi and Chitrakoot.

The industries identified by ADB for promotion in organized sector for creating new jobs are food processing, beverages, leather and related goods, basic metals, fabricated metal products, chemicals electronics, garments, automobile spare parts and Glass products.

For the leather industry, the ADB recommended that for promoting export of leather products industrial cluster with common infrastructure like central effluent treatment plant and branding support be developed.

The ADB estimated that share of UP in production of electronic goods and component in India was 27 percent, which had the potential of being increased up to 41 percent.

There is huge scope for development of dairy as of the total milk produced in the state, only 30 percent goes to organized sector or dairy industry. It said that there was need for developing more dairies for milk processing. The ADB said for Micro, Small and Medium  Enterprises (MSME), a cell dedicated to its cause be developed to look after development of MSME and cluster development,.

The ADB report was presented to Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar on Thursday. The ADB has so far presented 177 consultation papers to the state government where it identified possible hurdles and gaps and recommended for making suitable changes in policies and regulatory mechanism.

The ADB suggested to UP government to remove the hurdles and gaps in institutional mechanism so as to meet the objectives of Rs UP Industrial Investment and Employment Promotion Policy, 2017’ announced by the Yogi government soon after coming to power in March 2017.