Title - Chak Gajaria farms to fund Metro rail project in city

LUCKNOW: The developments proposed on Chak Gajaria farms on Sultanpur Road have been identified as the potential source to fund the much anticipated Metro project in the city, which was lying in the pipeline for years due to financial constraints.The farm belongs to animal husbandry department and extends over 850 acres. As per plan, around 320 acres of land is being proposed for setting up facilities like IT City, IIIT, UP administrative services academy, modern milk processing unit and a world class cancer hospital.The remaining 530 acres would be handed over to LDA for planning infrastructures like roads, sewerage, residential units, commercial complexes, township and green areas. After planning these developments, LDA would auction it to private parties and the funds raised through it would be used for funding Metro project.Sources hinted that in the initial phase, state government would be responsible to fund construction activities. But later on when enough funds are generated though the auction of housing and commercial projects, a large part of it can be kept as 'Metro fund' for financing the mass transit project. Officials peg this Metro fund to be close to around Rs 1,000 crore.Out of the remaining fund, Rs 200 crore would be given to the animal husbandry department for rehabilitation purpose and setting up of a modern dairy farm, Rs 200 crore to the cancer institute, Rs 64 crore for setting up of IIIT and Rs 40 crore to the dairy development department for strengthening of its units. The remaining money could be used to reimburse funds which were borrowed from the state government.In the mean time, animal husbandry department has been asked to relocate itself to a 25 acres land in Rehmankhera. This land belongs to agriculture department which would transfer it to the husbandry department absolutely free of cost. Other animal cultivation activities like milk procurement, breeding, etc., would be shifted to Niblet district of Barabanki, which is already owned by the husbandry department.Metro rail is a dream project of SP government with the CM himself taking a lot of interest in it. He has met LDA officials, DMRC team and Central Planning Commission officials to discuss ways to make the project feasible by bringing down its construction and operational cost. The project has undergone dramatic changes from time to time with officials struggling to zero in on the most viable financial model and also final route for the project. The initial cost was pegged around Rs 1,500 crore which the government could not bear. This was because major part of the route was proposed underground due to scarcity of land on the surface which catapulted the construction cost by 3-4 times.Initially, two corridors were proposed: 'North-South corridor' from Amausi airport to Munshipulia and the East-West corridor stretching from Vasantkunj up to Charbagh area. But later plans to re-align the route to some privately developed colonies and townships were incorporated so that the developers could share the cost burden.The team is currently exploring possibilities of converting a major part of the route into elevated form to bring down the cost.