UP govt cancels groundbreaking ceremony as investors reluctant to invest in state

With there being a doubt about the result of the Lok Sabha elections, industrialists are now reluctant to invest in Uttar Pradesh forcing the Yogi government to cancel the Groundbreaking ceremony, which was slated on March 8 in Kanpur.

A senior official in the department of Industries said that following a lukewarm response from the industries, the government has decided to shelve the groundbreaking ceremony in which the foundation of projects worth over ₹65,000 crore were to be laid.

“This decision was taken on Wednesday night and the same was communicated to the Prime Minister’s office because Prime Minister was to lay the foundation of majority of these projects,” the official said.

Prime Minister will come to Kanpur on March 8 and will lay foundation of some development projects but this will not include any project from the industry department. The PM will in fact inaugurate the commercial run of the Lucknow Metro from the airport to Munshipulia from Kanpur itself.

The decision was so sudden and it could be gauged from the fact that Non-Conventional Energy Minister Brijesh Pathak had held a press conference on Wednesday claiming that the foundation of over ₹9000 crore projects would be laid during Groundbreaking ceremony in Kanpur.

He boasted that many investors are keen to invest in UP and power generation from non-conventional methods could surpass electricity generated through conventional methods by the year 2022.

The senior officer said that investment in Uttar Pradesh depends on the colour of the government which will come after 2019 election. Their reluctance to invest in UP now shows the confusion in the minds of investors. They are not sure that Modi will return to power and have backed out forcing the state government to call off groundbreaking ceremony.

This is the third time this groundbreaking ceremony was cancelled. Earlier, this function was to be held on February 27 this year but on the wake of Pulwama and the subsequent developments the programme was cancelled. A similar programme was planned on December 20 last year but was cancelled as government said it was not prepared.

With the cancellation of this groundbreaking ceremony a big question mark is raised over the success of the Investors’ Summit which was held in February 2018 in which MoU worth ₹4.28 lakh crore was signed. But the actual investment was just a fraction of this number as in first groundbreaking ceremony projects worth ₹60,000 crore started while the second groundbreaking ceremony was cancelled.