Rahul’s Amethi loses 3rd mega industrial project in two years

Amethi has lost its third mega industrial project — the proposed National Centre for Vehicle Research and Safety.

In a letter sent to the Uttar Pradesh government, the Centre said that it has decided to “surrender” the plot of land in Trisundi, Amethi, on which the research centre was to come up. The reason for the shelving of the project has been given as follows: “NCVRS facilities need not be concentrated at a single location”.

The Centre’s decision comes exactly a year after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in May 2015, gave NATRiP Rae Bareli a three-year extension of deadline from December 31, 2014 to December 31, 2017. This had also given a fresh lease of life to the Amethi project, which was scheduled to come up on 120 acres of UP government land in Trisundi, Amethi.

The NCVRS project of the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project was to be the first-of-its-kind testing and certification facility for heavy vehicles in north India. Originally, NATRiP was to come up in Salon, Rae Bareli, which is the parliamentary constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

“Due to unavailability of land the accident data analysis centre was commissioned inside ITI, Rae Bareli. The 89.10 acres for the parent NATRiP was also allotted in Salon”, a senior official said. In UP, the project was scheduled to come up in two parts. While NCVRS, for testing tractors and off-road vehicles, was to be set up in Trisundi in Amethi, the second part of the project, a national facility for accident data analysis and a specialised driving training, was to come up in Salon, Rae Bareli. The accident data analysis centre (ADAC) has been functioning out of a two-room rented space at Rae Bareli’s ITI since February 2011, the other two bigger components — worth upwards of Rs 600 crore together — have still not taken off. “The state government sent an allotment of land letter to the ministry for heavy industries in 2014 but the centre has neither taken possession of the land and nor has it made any payment”, the official said. This is the third mega project to be cancelled or moved out of Amethi by the Modi government in the past two years. Amethi, which is the parliamentary constituency of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, has already lost two big industrial projects—the Shaktiman Mega Food Park, was cancelled in June 2014, within months of NDA government’s appointment and in 2015 , the Modi government also moved out the Hindustan Paper Mill project from Jagdishpur, Amethi.