Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the completed section of the ₹11,000 crore Kanpur Metro Rail Project in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
PM Modi, who was accompanied by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri, also took a little over 10 minutes ride on the Metro train from the IIT-Kanpur Metro station to Geeta Nagar in the city.
“Onboard the state of the art Kanpur metro. Heading to the programme where key development works will be launched,” the Prime Minister tweeted on Tuesday as he also inaugurated the Bina-Panki Multiproduct Pipeline Project.
Addressing the inauguration of the Pipeline Project, Modi said, “Today, Kanpur received metro connectivity. I congratulate you and the whole of Uttar Pradesh for this achievement.”
Stating that the metro ride that he took earlier in the day was a memorable experience, Modi said that before 2014, the total length of metro running in Uttar Pradesh was 9km. “The length of the metro increased to a total of 18 km between 2014-2017. If we include Kanpur Metro today, the length of metro in UP has now exceeded 90 km.”
The Prime Minister also pointed out that before 2014 only five cities had metro services. Today Uttar Pradesh alone has metro services in five cities, he added.
The completed 9km long section of Kanpur Metro Rail Project stretches from IIT-Kanpur to Moti Jheel. The entire length of the Metro project is 32km and it is being built at ₹11,000 crore.
In 2019, chief minister Yogi Adityanath started the construction work and the trial run took place on the 9km IIT-Kanpur to Motijheel Priority Corridor on November 10 this year.
“Improving urban mobility has been one of the key focus areas of the Prime Minister. The inauguration of the completed section of the Kanpur Metro Rail Project is yet another step in this direction,” according to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a swipe at the SP on Tuesday over the seizure of crores of rupees in cash from a Kanpur-based perfume trader and said it was the “achievement and reality” of the opposition party.
“Boxes filled with notes that have come out, I was thinking they (Samajwadi Party) will say that this was also done by us. The people of Kanpur understand business and trade well. Before 2017, the perfume of corruption that they had sprinkled all over Uttar Pradesh is there for everyone to see,” the prime minister said after inaugurating a metro rail project and the 356-km-long Bina-Panki multi-product pipeline project in Kanpur, without taking any name.
“But now, they are sitting with their mouths shut. They are not coming forward to take credit for the mountain of currency notes seen by the entire country. This is their achievement and their reality. The people of Uttar Pradesh are seeing and understanding everything and hence, they are with those who are working to take the state forward,” he added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday categorically denied any links between his party and Kanpur-based perfume trader Piyush Jain, and mockingly said the BJP got “its own businessman” raided “by mistake”. He also said the CDR (call detail record) of the businessman’s phone would reveal the names of several BJP leaders who were in touch with him. “By mistake, the BJP got its own businessman raided. Instead of SP leader Pushpraj Jain, it got Piyush Jain raided,” Yadav told reporters before the start of the “Samajwadi Rath Yatra”.
