By IANS,
Lucknow : With the Samajwadi Party (SP) set to take power in Uttar Pradesh, government officials have set their eyes on projects such as parks and statues that were close to party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s heart in his last stint as chief minister until 2007.
Prominent among them is the sprawling Lohia Park in the posh Gomtinagar area, spread over 80 acres. Opened by Mulayam Singh Oct 12, 2004, the park, which has vast expanses of greenery, has walkways and a water body. It is very popular with morning walkers.
But it had been ignored by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) in the last five years that Mayawati was in power.
Unlike the monuments built in the vicinity by BSP chief Mayawati, this park doesn’t have much brick, stone and mortar. Under Mulayam Singh’s directions, large tracts were left for greenery and plantation or aromatic plants, Rohit Khanna, the architect who built it for LDA, told IANS.
He described it as a one of its kind park in the state.
The 18-feet bronze statue of Ram Manohar Lohia, the veteran socialist leader who was mentor to Mulayam Singh, was hastily scrubbed and cleaned by LDA employees Wednesday, with a posse of officials including its Executive Engineer R.N. Singh keeping a watchful eye.
The Lohia Path, catering to traffic in Gomtinagar and a carriage for heavy traffic from the Bareilly-Barabanki-Sitapur road on one side and Kanpur-Allahabad-Sultanpur-Varanasi road on the other, is also being spruced up.
The work, undertaken by PWD officials, includes repair of the special tiling on both sides of the 11.5 metres road.
The tiling, which cost almost Rs.1.5 crore when laid, has been ripped off at several places and will now be relaid, officials say. The fence along the 1.5 metre wide footpath and the two metre wide bicycle track on both sides of the road is also to be repainted, officials said.
The Lohia Path connects the city with the Trans-Gomti area and has the chief minister’s residence, Lucknow Golf Club and key government offices and residential colonies around it.
The Samajwadi Party scored a spectacular victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, winning 224 of the total 403 seats. The return of the SP marks the end of five years of Bahujan Samaj Party rule.