‘City of the future' in UP heartland: Yogi govt speeds up big-ticket project, but Opposition remains sceptical

Indian Express

5 days ago

Known for being a drought-prone region, the barren landscape of Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh is now crucial to the Yogi Adityanath government's ambitions to achieve $ 1-trillion economy status by 2029, with the state administration planning to establish a 'futuristic' industrial city bigger than even Noida.
The proposed industrial township at the heart of UP will be built over 56,662 acres of land across 33 villages in Jhansi district and will meet international sustainability standards, with 24.2% of its area set aside for green cover, officials said. The draft master plan of the city, which will be administered by the newly formed Bundelkhand Industrial Development Authority (BIDA), has been prepared by a consortium of Singapore-based Surbana Jurong, a government-owned consultancy company focusing on infrastructure and urban development, and the US-based CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm, that was selected through bidding.
Sources said BIDA had cleared the master plan, prepared over nine months, and is now awaiting the final approval from the government.
Officials said the state administration had sped up the land acquisition process, with 19,000 acres of land already acquired for about Rs 3,000 crore for building the township. Experts and officials said the government had tried other methods to shift the investment focus from the National Capital Region to the other parts of UP, including providing extra incentives and rebates, but now the hope lay with the development of this township that will sit at the crossroads of the North-South and East-West national corridors, making it an ideal logistics hub.
'The concept of BIDA has become fascinating as it will not just be bigger than NODIA but is being planned in such a way that it is futuristic, self-sustainable, with due consideration given to the creation of green belts, buffer zones, and use of green energy. It is the first time in 47 years that an Industrial city at such a large scale is being established in the state,' said BIDA CEO Amrit Tripathi.
He said more than 26% had been set aside for green cover and the development was 'more focused on achieving global standards of sustainability and all planning is based on circular economy'. The draft master-plan 2045 proposes that the township have its own golf city, convention centres, institutional and residential areas, large water bodies, including a waterfront near Dongri Dam, a tent city for tourists, and a skill development centre to cater to the needs of the industry.
Of the total area, about 33% will be allotted to industries, 16% will be used for residential purposes, about 2% will be village abadi land (inhabited areas used primarily for residential purposes and other activities such as keeping cattle, schools and other institutions), 1.5% for commercial use, and about 5% designated as mixed use. About 3.7% has been set aside as institutional land and 2.81% is for water bodies.
Officials said the focus was on seeking investments for apparel, foods and beverages, pharmaceuticals (a bulk drugs park is coming up in neighbouring Lalitpur district), defence (given its proximity to the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor), and electrical and renewable energy sectors.
Among the advantages that the region has are the Bundelkhand Expressway and the presence of two of the six nodes of the defence corridor: Jhansi and Chitrakoot. The latter, however, has yet to receive any major investment.
Accusing the government of focusing on acquiring land for the benefit of a handful of big industrialists, Samajwadi Party district president Brajendra Yadav said, 'Farmers are being neglected in this entire process. While farmers of western UP have become rich, with the high compensation for their land, here, the land is being acquired at far cheaper rates to benefit the industries that have yet to set up anything. The land where this township is coming is in the heart of the country, that is in Babina, which was once a big Army base. We just hope that farmers and locals get the benefit of this land acquisition and the new township,' he said.
Criticising the project, former Union Minister and Congress leader from Bundelkhand, Pradeep Jain Aditya, said, 'The government is focusing only on acquiring land. So much land was acquired for the Defence Corridor, but what happened to the big claims of mega investment in the corridor here in Bundelkhand? Despite acquiring so much land, they have failed to bring any large-scale investments like in Nodia. While projects in other nodes are progressing at a fast pace, here, only the boundary wall has been constructed. Local industries such as a glass factory in Chitrakoot, the Khadi Udyog in Mahoba, and a paper mill in Kalpi have all closed down over the years. How can we believe the government's claims now?'