Over 100 roads in UP to become National Highways: Keshav Prasad Maurya

Allahabad: Road development in Uttar Pradesh is likely to receive a major boost with the conversion of more than 100 state and district roads into national highways, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said on Sunday.

"The Yogi Adityanath government has so far given NOCs (no objection certificate) for conversion of 73 state highways and district roads into national highways to the Union Ministry of Surface Transport.

"A move is afoot to give NOCs for another 45," Maurya, who also holds the Public Works Department portfolio, told a press conference here.

The deputy chief minister was in town to inaugurate a passport office inside the premises of the head post office here.

Maurya said "we have received a sum of Rs 10,000 crore from the Centre under the central road fund. Works undertaken with the help of this fund will be completed by October, 2018".

The BJP came to power in UP only in March this year and already we have succeeded in making a major part of the state's roads free of potholes, he claimed.

He said that the city of Allahabad was going to witness rapid development in near future with projects like "inner ring road at a cost of Rs 37 billion" and a "mega food park which is expected to bring in investments to the tune of Rs five billion".