‘UP third biggest economy, offers positive ecosystem for growth, entrepreneurship’

Lucknow: At least 24% of Uttar Pradesh is now urbanized due to the initiatives taken by the state government, according to additional chief secretary (ACS), urban development, urban employment and poverty alleviation, Rajneesh Dube.

“Uttar Pradesh is the third biggest economy at Rs 17.06 lakh crore. It has 17 nagar nigams, out of which seven look after cities, most of them in west UP, with over one million population. At least four more cities are on the cusp of having population of over one million,” said the ACS while speaking at the ‘Destination Uttar Pradesh Conclave’ organised by the Times Group.

“This makes it a good market place and a positive ecosystem for entrepreneurship,” said Dube, who is also the state mission director for Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). The state has 734 urban local bodies (ULBs). The ACS based his presentation on sustainable development goals, the roadmap of which was laid in the Rio Summit, 2012.

It focused on how economies and countries will move towards various goals in terms of welfare and technological advancement. The most important goal for urban transformation is sustainable cites and communities.

“Uttar Pradesh, with the score of 77 on urban transformation, is one of the frontrunners in the country. In the last five years, UP has won several recognitions. It was the first in the implementation of smart city mission, first in the implementation of PM Awas Yojana (Urban), one of the best performing states in the implementation of PM Svanidhi Yojana, Light House Project. UP is also a high performing state under RERA, one of the top five states in SBM (Urban) and Metro and RRTS projects and has witnessed the largest number of green buildings coming up in the last five years,” he said.

“Indian Green Building Council, Hyderabad, presented UP with the Green Champion Award this year for encouraging construction of largest number of green buildings,” the ACS said. The presentation by the ACS on sustainability or city resilience had four parts – environmental considerations, economic growth, inclusive growth, and reforms & key intiatives.

“The first aspect of clean and green cities is operation of electric buses. Currently, all major cities either have electric buses or will have them by December-end. There are SPVs in 14 cities for operation of electric buses. At least 400 buses are on the road. There will be total 700 buses covering 126000 km every day. The buses have CCTV cameras, panic buttons, and passenger information system.

“This has changed the experience of travelling and reduced air pollution,” he said. An 82km stretch of Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor is under construction with an investment of Rs 35,000 crore. It is a first of its kind in India and being constructed by NCRTC. An express line of 33.64 km from Jewar airport to Noida/Delhi is being constructed. Work on metro projects is being carried out in Agra and Kanpur and DPR for Gorakhpur Metro has been passed,” he said.

“On Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), UP has won 15 awards in different categories. UP ranked 18th on SBM rankings in 2018 and climbed to 6th spot in 2020. At least 35 processing plants for solid waste management have been sanctioned,” he said.