“ A robust infrastructure system ensures that we are able to move goods and services, but also people in the most effective possible way which helps in enhancing their effi ciency. Infrastructure is significant for economic growth, employment opportunities and access to markets and services. This high speed Expressway will not only allow smooth travel options but will on the other hand open up new doors for infrastructural developments around the stretch." Ashok Gupta, CMD, Ajnara India Ltd.
“ No doubt with the construction of such road networks, regions lying in the stretch of these highways and expressways will have improved connectivity and infrastructural development will get a boost as well. The scope of development of the regions in and around these projects is enormous and future will see vast real estate growth in these areas. Not just this, there is a huge opportunity for the setting up of industrial corridors and foreign investments along these highways and expressways due to connectivity benefi ts and transportation facilities." Ashwani Prakash, Executive Director, Paramount Group.
UP PRE-POLL SURVEY
SAMAJWADI PARTY SHINES
If a recent opinion poll on the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh election is to be believed, the ruling Samajwadi Party will beat anti-incumbency to emerge as the largest single party in the state.
In the Assembly election due early next year, while the Mulayam Singh Yadavled party is expected to get 30 per cent of the votes, the BJP and Mayawati ' s BSP will be neck and neck with 27 and 26 per cent votes respectively.
The survey has been conducted by news channel ABP News in collaboration with Lokniti, the electoral wing of New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies( CSDS). HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SURVEY:
The BJP, which won a landslide 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats( its ally Apna Dal won two) in the 2014 general election in UP, is set to be the biggest gainer.
But a comparison with its 2014 performance means the BJP is down by a staggering 16 points, a factor that will benefit the SP and the BSP.
The BJP has lost, according to the survey, a whopping 40 per cent of its voters since 2014.
The Congress, which has had a dismal showing at the hustings since 2014, might have to settle with a meagre five per cent of votes.
The survey gives the Samajwadi Party 141-151 seats, the BJP 124-134 seats, and the BSP 103-113 seats in the 403-member Assembly.
Shockingly, despite roping in strategist Prashant Kishor for the UP job, the Congress may be reduced to single digits, i. e. less than 10 seats.
Kishor in the past has been on the winning side of two major elections- Narendra Modi ' s in 2014 and Nitish Kumar ' s in 2015.
Mayawati-led BSP has been fighting serious defection in her party- a senior former MP left her yesterday- but has time to improve prospects owing to the recent assertion of Dalits across the country and its possible effect in Uttar Pradesh.
In the current UP Assembly, the SP has 232 members, the BSP 80, the Congress 38 while 14 others are independents.
The survey suggests that Uttar Pradesh might throw a hung Assembly with the possibility of postpoll alliances to form a coalition government. �
November 2016 31 www. smartgovernance. in