LUCKNOW: The 17th century monument in Agra, the Taj, which was recently in news for being taken off a state Government tourism brochure, has made a quiet entry into Aditya Nath Yogi government’s big investment plan early next year.
The government, in its brochure prepared for UP Investors’ Summit 2018, has shown the Taj Mahal — and its connectivity to the rest of the state through expressways — as one of the key reasons to invest here.
“Best Cultural Destination in India Award for the year 2016-17 by Lonely Planet magazine,” reads a part of the brochure titled ‘State of Investment’ that has a huge photograph of the Taj Mahal. The Taj is mentioned at least four times in the 22-page brochure.
The first page dedicated to infrastructure availability in UP includes a detailed graphic on the six famous expressways. Here is how two are described — “Agra to Lucknow Expressway: 302 km connecting the state capital to most Popular Tourist Destination of UP,” Then, “Yamuna Expressway: 165 km national capital to most popular tourist destination of UP”.
The brochure adds, “Three integrated manufacturing clusters of about 2,500 acres each are proposed at Aligarh-Agra, Kanpur and Allahabad.” The government has dedicated two pages to dairy industry, saying UP is the “largest milk producing state in India” and that there are investment opportunities for dairy processing and dairy farming through “high-valued milk products, cold chain logistics and storage equipment, fodder production farms, artificial insemination and animal feed.” It makes a specific mention of highest number of adult bovine population among all Indian states.
“Over 24.5 million adult female cows and buffaloes, the state is producing 3.5 lakh kg of milk production every year,” it says. Besides the Taj Mahal and dairy industry, the government has included focus on Varanasi, saying the district has key handloom and textile clusters. The state government wants apparel, retail brands and e-commerce outlets to tap Mirzapur-Bhadohi’s carpet cluster and silk cluster in Varanasi from Modi‘s seat.
For this, government has decided to a hire public relations firm, with a turnover of Rs 200 crore, to look after the summit. The summit will take place on February 21-22.
Source : timesofindia
