Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh (UP) government on Saturday (21 August) received the sanction letter of Rs 5,100 crore loan for the Ganga Expressway project from the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

The state government will use this amount for the Ganga Expressway, which will connect Meerut in west UP to Prayagraj in the eastern part of the state.

TheRs 5100 crore loan, under the securitisation process, will be repaid to the bank within 15 years from the toll to be received on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. During this period of loan repayment, the expressway would continue to be owned and operated by UPEIDA.

According to the UP government, this is the first innovative attempt to monetize public infrastructure assets in the state and the whole of northern India.

The Ganga Expressway will be owned and operated during the loan period by Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), reports Hindustan Times.

Speaking at the event, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “I am very proud of chief minister Yogi Adityanath who understands the larger national interest, translates that into the state’s policies and takes it at the execution level to the last mile.”

“That which had to be done in six decades is being attempted to be completed within four-five years. It requires extraordinary commitment and efforts, and that is what the CM is doing. Pleasantly happy that a public sector bank has gone thinking forward,” Sitharaman said while hailing the infrastructure works going on in Uttar Pradesh.

The proposed Ganga Expressway will be around 594 km long, a 6-lane wide (expandable to eight lanes) greenfield expressway. The expressway will pass through 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh, namely (from west to east) Meerut, Hapur, Bulandshahar, Amroha, Sambhal, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rai Bareli, Pratapgarh, and Prayagraj.