Title - : Lucknow Metro still has miles to go

The only new offering in the state budget for 2013-14, which Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav presented this week, was the decision to go ahead with the Lucknow Metro project. However, no financial allocation was made on the pretext that the project will be executed on the PPP model. In any case, work is unlikely to start in the coming financial year. For, the government has decided to make major changes in the project profile, which was finalised during the previous BSP government, and extend it to more areas. That means the project now goes back to the drawing board. Also, the government will have to contend with the questions about financial viability — because of which the Mayawati government had quietly shelved the project.