Union petroleum minister says UP implementing projects faster

Oct 04,2021

Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said the UP government was implementing various development projects on a faster pace vis-à-vis the previous Samajwadi Party government in the state.
“Uttar Pradesh is doing well in urban mobility sector. Out of 82 km operational metro rail in the state, 67 km has been commissioned during the tenure of Yogi government. Another 131 km is under construction. This includes 82 km Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System to be ready by June 2025,” Puri said here.
Puri said the trial run of Kanpur Metro on 9.5 km route from IIT Kanpur to Motijheel section was likely to start by next month and its inauguration may take place by December.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to watch Ayodhya’s masterplan and futuristic model of the temple town and will also launch 75 urban projects in Lucknow on Tuesday. Puri, who is also Union housing and urban affairs minister, listed Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, PM Swadhini Yojana and SMART City scheme to make his point that Uttar Pradesh was among the top performing states.
Asked about the PNG connections, he said 22,000-km pipeline was being laid against a target of 35,000-km pipeline. He said about 4,000-km pipeline will be laid in the current financial year. About Lucknow, he said more PNG connections would be given expeditiously in the state capital in coming months. Puri said only 72,000 piped natural gas (PNG) connections had been given in Lucknow against a target of 4.9 lakh connections by 2022. He said the target would be achieved by giving expeditious connections.
Puri said the number of LPG retail outlets had gone up significantly in the state. He said there were only 6,043 retail outlets when the Yogi government was installed and that the number had gone up to 9,810 now. He said the LPG distributorship had also increased by 33 percent. Puri said the number of compressed natural gas (CNG) stations had gone up to from 115 in 2017 to 502 now. Puri will also distribute free gas connections to beneficiaries of Ujjwala scheme on Tuesday.
In Lucknow, there were 12 CNG stations earlier and this number had gone up to 37 now, he said. He gave statistics about how the number of LPG connections had gone up and said in areas like Lucknow the saturation was nearly 100 percent. He said more connections were being given under unsaturated areas. Puri said three refills were given free under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana and the beneficiaries were getting their LPG cylinders refilled.
He said UP was the first state to have come out with its own civil aviation policy. The minister said Airports Authority of India had spent ₹2000 crore on different projects in the state. He said UP had four airports before installation of the Yogi government and out of them only two were being regularly used. Puri said UP now had eight operational airports. He said Kushinagar airport would soon be inaugurated while an international airport was coming up at Ayodhya. He said flights had now started to smaller cities under the UDAN scheme.