By IANS,
Agra : The Agra-Mathura region is witnessing a slew of developmental projects aimed at upgrading the civic infrastructure. These will be completed within the next two years in time for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in 2010, officials say.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had announced several schemes April 15 last year. Concrete shape is being given to some of these projects for which deadlines have been fixed not only for their completion but also probable dates for inauguration.
The forthcoming Commonwealth Games in 2010 have provided a further impetus to the developmental spree being witnessed here.
The development projects are likely to benefit the Bahujan Samaj Party, whenever general elections take place, as it may be able to woo a chunk of the electorate who normally vote for the Samajwadi Party.
The Agra Development Authority has announced half a dozen schemes to modernise the city’s civic infrastructure.
Another bridge on river Yamuna close to the existing Jawahar bridge should be ready by June 15, 2010. This will relieve the pressure on the tottering 100-year-old Strachey bridge which itself is to go through a make-over phase. Work on at least three new fly overs in the city will begin next month and they are to be completed by 2010.
State horticulture minister Narayan Singh, who belongs to Agra, is keen that the condition of Paliwal Park and Shah Jahan garden improves.
Horticulture department officials say the biggest problem is water supply, which is brackish in the Taj Mahal area. “The British had made arrangement for water supply to the Taj Mahal area and the gardens through a minor canal branching from the Agra canal fed by the Okhla barrage. This minor canal is now choked with garbage and there’s no water because of poor maintenance,” says Ravi Singh, a local environmentalist.
Work on the new Inter State Bus Terminus on the Delhi highway is continuing at a brisk pace.
Also on cards is the shifting of the ‘petha’ (a traditional sweet) industry from the interiors to Kalindi Vihar across the river Yamuna. The district authorities are already busy persuading the cloth merchants and the shoe traders to shift from the old city to new shops in the Sanjay Place commercial complex.
Work on a bridge for the pipeline which has to cross the river Yamuna, close to the Mathura district border, has begun after some initial hassles caused by rival groups of villagers who wanted the project shifted to their side of the village.