Groundbreaking ceremonies of Rs 54,000-cr projects in UP soon

Lucknow, May 23 (IANS) Groundbreaking ceremonies of projects entailing expenditure of Rs 54,000 crore, regarding which MoUs were signed during "UP Investors Summit 2018" in February, will take place soon, an official said on Wednesday.

Industry Minister Satish Mahana held discussions with senior bureaucrats and directed officials concerned to ensure talks with investors on one-to-one basis to resolve issues, if any, before the groundbreaking ceremonies.

These projects are part of the MoUs signed for projects with various companies that entailed a total investment of Rs 4.28 lakh crore.

Investors whose projects were expected to be ready to be included in the first groundbreaking ceremonies also attended the meeting, the official told IANS. 

Mahana said that consequent to "unprecedented and encouraging response to the summit, investors and industrialists from across India and abroad have expressed confidence in the state government to invest in Uttar Pradesh."

The Minister added that unlike previous governments, when MoUs were signed and forgotten, the BJP government was serious about industrialisation and had adopted a proactive approach to make Uttar Pradesh the most preferred state for investment.

During the discussions with investors, Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anoop Chandra Pandey issued directions to all departments concerned to issue provisional letters of comfort (LoCs) to MoU signatory investors as a mark of assurance on the government's intent to handhold and incentivise them to implement their projects with ease and in a timely manner.

Pandey said that as a result of continuous communication with investors and pursuance of MoUs' implementation status after the investors' summit, the state was about to receive investments of around Rs 52,000 crore in the first stage.

"Over 80 large projects are ready at the state level, for which formal groundbreaking ceremonies would be held soon, and at the same time, groundbreaking ceremonies of micro, small and medium units would be held at the district level," he added.

Senior officials of around 50 companies from across the sectors, who attended the dialogue on Wednesday, included Tata Consultancy Services, PayTM, ACC Cement, Tegna Electronics, Metro Cash & Carry, Berger Paints, Greenply Industries, PTC Industries, Kanodia Group, Paswara Paper, DCM Shriram, B L Agro Industries, Goldie Masale, Tikaula Sugar Mills, Yash Papers, C P Milk and Food Products, Sukhbir Agro Energy, HPCL, GAIL and SLMG Beverages.

These companies have proposed investment in a range of sectors like cement, food processing, paper, textile, IT, electronics manufacturing, renewable energy, power and dairy.