In 2014, Uttar Pradesh tried to script economic growth but failed

Lucknow: It’s been the country’s political nucleus for long, but Uttar Pradesh tried to chalk out an economic story in 2014, although without much success, and will look at reviving this growth-focus in the new year. The Samajwadi Party government, under its young chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s leadership, tried to evolve a growth-focused economic atmosphere, but continuous political battles and numerous controversies kept hogging the focus and the development continued to take a backseat during the year. Adding to the troubles, real estate sector – a showpiece for economic developments in this state – also faced turbulent times due to problems on various fronts including land acquisition, farmer protests and environment norms. The sugar business also had its own share of problems including due to huge arrears required to be paid to farmers, although the state remains the country’s second largest sugar producer after Maharashtra. The power scenario also remained gloomy, largely due to a spat between the state and central government, while a lot of attempts were made in areas like roads and rivers. The Chief Minister also went to the Netherlands to attract foreign investors in sectors like agriculture and dairy. The state government launched a metro project for Lucknow and an ambitious Lucknow-Agra Expressway project to link the historic town of Taj Mahal to the capital. [caption id=“attachment_1837407” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Akhilesh Yadav in this file photo. AFP[/caption] With metro links in Noida and Ghaziabad – the two satellite cities of the national capital Delhi – the state has begun work on the Lucknow project and the estimated cost is about Rs 12,500 crore. The work began in September and the first phase is targetted to be completed by 2016. The Agra-Lucknow Expressway project, with an estimated cost of Rs 10,500 crore, will cut down travel time between two cities to three and half hours, from six hours at present. The government has also chalked out an scheme to construct an IT city, a state of the art medicity, an administrative training institute and an international stadium on 846 acre land near Lucknow. Besides, the Chief Minister has also launched a Trans-Ganga project in Unnao, even as the river Ganga began getting a lot of attention on account of Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching a Clean Ganga campaign and Varanasi being his Lok Sabha constituency. A blame game continued for most part of the year over power crisis in the state, with the state government accusing the Centre of discrimination over supply of coal, among other issues. The crisis, however, appeared to be headed towards getting resolved towards the end of the year following a visit of Union Minister Piyush Goyal and his meeting with the Chief Minister. PTI