New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Gorakhpur on Tuesday to dedicate development projects worth over Rs 9,600 crore in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh. The Prime Minister would dedicate three projects, Gorakhpur Fertilizer Plant, AIIMS Gorakhpur, and a regional center of ICMR in Gorakhpur. According to the Prime Minister's tour plan, Prime Minister Modi would dedicate the Gorakhpur Fertilizer Plant which has been rebuilt and revived at a cost of Rs 8,600 crores at around 1 PM on Tuesday. The plant was shut for more than three decades.
In addition to dedicating the fertilizer plant, the Prime Minister would also dedicate to the nation the fully functional complex of AIIMS, Gorakhpur which has been built at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crores.
The PM would also dedicate a regional center of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Gorakhpur that has been developed on the lines of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The ICMR's Gorakhpur center would help in the identification and treatment of viral diseases such as Chikungunya, Kala Azar (Black Fever), Dengue, and Covid-19.
“It would not only serve the districts of Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh but also neighboring Bihar and even Nepal,” said official sources.
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Prime Minister Modi has inaugurated or laid foundation stones for several high profile projects in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in recent times such as Purvanchal Expressway in eastern Uttar Pradesh, an international airport in Jewar in western Uttar Pradesh that will reduce the burden on Indira Gandhi international airport in New Delhi and Delhi-Dehradun expressway in Uttarakhand.
Prime Minister Modi's party BJP is ruling both the states that are going to polls early next year along with Punjab which is ruled by the principal opposition party Congress.
BJP also rules two other states Goa and Manipur that are going to polls early next year.
Gorakhpur Fertiliser Plant
The Gorakhpur Fertilizer Plant is spread over 600 acres and it has the capacity to produce 12 lakh tonnes of urea per annum. Prime Minister Modi had laid the foundation stone for this plant in 2016.
Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL) had set up a fertilizer unit in Gorakhpur in 1969 for the production of urea with naphtha as a feedstock.
However, the plant was closed in June 1990 due to continuing losses to the FCIL that mainly stemmed from technical and financial non-viability of operations, particularly the high cost of Naphtha.
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According to sources, the demand for the revival of the Gorakhpur fertilizer plant was more than two decades old.
Blaming the previous governments for neglecting the popular demand, the sources said no one took any initiative for the revival of the fertilizer plant.
Sources pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first raised the issue of revival of the Gorakhpur fertilizer plant ahead of the General Elections in 2014.
“After becoming Prime Minister, he worked towards the revival of closed fertilizer plants and laid the foundation stone for Gorakhpur plant revival in 2016,” they said.
The revived plant will supply urea to farmers of the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh and also to neighbouring States.
“It will help in generating direct as well as indirect employment for both skilled and unskilled manpower of the region. The plant will help in facilitating the development of small and medium scale industries as well. It will also play a part in ensuring price stability in the domestic fertilizer market,” said the sources.
At present, against the annual demand of 350 lakh tonnes of urea, domestic production of urea is around 250 lakh tonnes. The country is required to import almost 100 lakh tonnes of urea to bridge the shortfall but it also leads to loss of forex reserves.
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In addition to the Gorakhpur Fertilizer Plant, the government is reviving four more fertilizer plants located at Barauni in Bihar, Sindri in Jharkhand, Ramagundam in Telangana and Talcher in Odisha.
According to sources, these 5 plants have the potential to augment the country's overall urea production by more than 60 lakh tonnes per annum, bringing down the gap between the demand and domestic production to 40 lakh tonnes per annum from the present 100 lakh tonnes.
AIIMS Gorakhpur
In addition to dedicating the Gorakhpur Fertilizer Plant, Prime Minister Modi would also dedicate a fully functional AIIMS in Gorakhpur, which has been built at the cost of over Rs 1,000 crore. Prime Minister Modi had laid the foundation stone for Gorakhpur AIIMS in 2016 and the modern hospital is built over an area of 112 acres.
“Dedication to the nation of yet another AIIMS reflects the constant endeavour of the NDA government to ensure the provision of quality tertiary healthcare in all corners of the country so that people are not forced to rush to faraway places in times of need,” said the sources.
According to sources, good healthcare was limited to the metros, with people thronging to these cities in search of a cure for their ailments.
“This was in essence due to regional imbalance in the availability of quality, reliable healthcare,” they said.
Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the vision of the first NDA Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had announced the establishment of 6 new AIIMS like hospitals in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur, and Rishikesh in his Independence Day speech in 2003.
These hospitals were to be set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
14 AIIMS are at different stages of construction
Sources said Prime Minister Modi increased the allocation for the PMSSY by eight times from Rs 891 crores in 2014 to Rs 7,517 crores in FY 2020-21 as he has announced the plan to set up 15 AIIMS in the last 7 years.
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These AIIMS are at various stages of completion and are situated all across the country such as Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, and one AIIMS each in Manethi in Haryana and Bathinda district in Punjab.
In western India, two AIIMS are being built, one each in Rajkot in Gujarat and Nagpur in Maharashtra.
In South India, the Centre is building three AIIMS, one each in Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh and Bibinagar district in Telangana
In the hilly states, the Centre is building three AIIMS, one each in Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, Vijaypur in Jammu and Awantipora in Kashmir.
In eastern and northeastern India, the Government is building four AIIMS, one each in Deoghar in Jharkhand, Darbhanga in Bihar, Kalyani in West Bengal, and one AIIMS in Guwahati in Assam.
