Lucknow : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced that the government would establish a defence industrial production corridor in Uttar Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 20,000 crore that would also generate 250,000 jobs.

“I am making an important announcement. In this year’s budget, we had announced that we will establish two defence industrial production corridors. One of them will be in Uttar Pradesh,” Modi said addressing the ‘Investors Meet’ here.

The event organised by the Yogi Adityanath government is aimed to showcase the investment opportunities in the state. Corporate honchos are attending the summit.

The Prime Minister said the decision was taken keeping in mind the developmental requirements of Bundelkhand region.

The corridor will link Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi and Chitrakoot, he said.

The government had earlier announced that it would develop two such corridors. The first of the two runs between Chennai and Bengaluru – connecting Kattupalli port, Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Hosur.

Modi also praised the Uttar Pradesh government for curbing red tape and rolling out red carpet for investors and taking decisions that have linked industrial development with employment generation.

“There is no dearth of resources and opportunities in Uttar Pradesh where you find ‘Lucknowi chikankari’, ‘Banarsi zardosi’, brassware of Moradabad and glassware industries of Firozabad,” Modi said.

He also asked the Uttar Pradesh government to compete with Maharashtra in achieving a target of one trillion dollar economy.

“I set this challenge before Uttar Pradesh to compete with Maharashtra and let us see who will become the first trillion dollar economy,” he said.

He said Uttar Pradesh today was the number one state in the production of grains, wheat, sugarcane, milk and potatoes in the whole country.

It is also the second largest producer of fruits and third largest producer of vegetables in the country.

—IANS