With the Uttar Pradesh government starting to acquire land at four nodes, the much-touted UP Defence Industrial Corridor project has got off the ground.
Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UP Investors’ Summit in February 2018, the defence infrastructure corridor is estimated to attract investments of Rs 20,000 crore in the arid Bundelkhand region and generate employment for 2.5 lakh people.
According to Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the nodal agency for the defence manufacturing corridor, land for the flagship project is being acquired in two phases.
“Almost 3,788 hectares of land is to be acquired across four nodes as part of Phase I, out of which over 1,455 hectares has been identified in Jhansi, Kanpur, Chitrakoot and Aligarh. Of this, around 1,200 hectares has already been acquired, mainly in Jhansi, Aligarh and Chitrakoot,” said a UPEIDA official.
While Lucknow, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Aligarh, Kanpur and Agra were proposed as the six nodes of the defence industrial corridor project, the interest it has evoked saw the UP government notify another three nodes for investment — Meerut, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
