Amethi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to lay the foundation stone for the Regional Rapid Transit System, connecting Delhi with Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad and Meerut on March 8, ahead of the Election Commission of India announcing the dates for the upcoming general election. 

Modi will also flag off the commercial run of the Lucknow Metro on the same day. The Lucknow Metro is a newly constructed 23 km north-south corridor from the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport to Munshipulia in Lucknow.  

The BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said, “A functional plan has been drafted for transport in NCR, taking into consideration the projected traffic up to 2032. There are eight corridors in it, but the one related to Uttar Pradesh is the 82.5 km long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor. It will be constructed through mixed funding and is expected to be ready by 2024.”

The Central government is giving Rs 6,464 crore for the corridor, whose total cost is Rs 30,668 crore. While the Delhi government is giving Rs 1,216 crore, the Uttar Pradesh government has allotted Rs 6,237 crore for the same. 

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Developing Uttar Pradesh has been part of Modi’s big plans since he won the general elections in 2014, largely buoyed by the BJP getting 71 out of the 80 seats on offer. On February 3, Modi unveiled several development projects for Amethi and addressed a gathering at Kauhar.

Amethi is the parliamentary constituency of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. While addressing a massive gathering on Sunday, the Prime Minister said, “We might have lost an election here but we won your hearts. In the past 5 years, Smriti Irani has worked very hard for the development of this region. She never made you feel whether you made her win or lose, she worked more than the person who won here.”

Talking about the decisions his government took for the security forces, Modi said that  'Made in Amethi' AK-203s will be of great help to the forces in fighting terrorists and naxals. Modi launched a Kalashnikov rifles manufacturing facility in Amethi.

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The Prime Minister also said that several bulletproof jackets were bought for the jawans. 

Before Amethi, Modi addressed a massive rally in Patna along with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.