Yogi all set to dismantle Akhilesh’s cycle track in UP

The Yogi government is all set to dismantle another project of the Akhilesh government – this time the cycle track – as government claims that these cycle tracks were proving to be big obstruction in the smooth flow of traffic.

The urban development and the parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna said the cycle tracks are serving no purpose, they are lying unused and have been encroached upon leading to traffic congestion.

“This cycle track project is just a waste of money. I have never seen any cyclist driving down that track. Instead you can see hawkers sitting there and selling their wares,” the minister said.

He said this encroachment has slowed down the traffic and has indirectly added to pollution.

The cycle tracks were the flagship project of the previous Samajwadi Party government of Uttar Pradesh and these Tracks have been constructed along the streets in all major cities of the state.

An official of the public works department said that the government has decided to demolish the cycle tracks as it has received large number of complaints from different cities. The cycle tracks in Bareilly have already been demolished.

The BSP government headed by Mayawati in 2007 had demolished the iron railing alongside the Lohia path constructed during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime, which was voted out of office in 2007 state assembly election.

During the Samajwadi party regime, cycle tracks were constructed in all big towns of the state. The project was financed by the municipal corporations and the urban development authorities and the industrial authorities in NOIDA and greater NOIDA. The urban local bodies spent close to ₹500 crore on the flagship project of the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.   The public works department had constructed the cycle tracks along the major arterial roads in Lucknow.

The former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had marketed the cycle track as a major initiative for conserving environment.

The previous government had formulated an urban housing policy which recommended construction of cycle tracks for “easy, smooth and safe movement of cyclists” in urban areas of the state.

In Lucknow and Noida, over 100 km of tracks were built. A 35-km stretch costing ₹31 crore was inaugurated by Akhilesh Yadav in 2015 in the state capital. Akhilesh Yadav had inaugurated the state’s first cycle highway between Etawah and Agra in 2016. The project was 207- km long and incurred a cost of ₹134 crore.

Soon after coming to power, the Yogi Adityanath government started reviewing projects initiated during the previous SP regime. The chief minister had visited Gomti Riverfront in April, few weeks after assuming the office of the chief minister on March 19. Yogi Adityanath had expressed his displeasure over the colossal waste of public money due to the exorbitant cost of the project with no benefit to the people and the environment.

The Yogi government had also ordered probe into construction of Janeshwar Mishra International Centre, Agra-Lucknow Expressway and closed down projects like Samajwadi Pension Yojana and Kanya Vidya Dhan.