Lucknow Almost five years of frosty relations between the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government gave way to new-found bonhomie on Monday when leaders of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party shared the dais at the foundation stone laying ceremony for the R 11,088-crore, 1980 mw power plant in the state. The project, which is likely to usher in brighter days in the state in the coming years, is a 51:49% joint venture between Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, and is to come up at Ghatampur in Kanpur district. The project will be financed at a debt/equity ration of 70:30. Speaking on the occasion, CM Akhilesh Yadav said the power project would go a long way in ushering in industrialisation and progress for the state and assured all help from the state government for it. “I appeal to all farmers to cooperate and extend their land for the project and also assure them that their interests will be looked after and they will not be let down,” he said. Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal also assured that his ministry would extend all help in getting coal linkages for the project as soon as possible. “The project, which is expected to start generation by 2016, will directly benefit the Bundelkhand region,” he said. The Navratna NLC had signed an MoU with the previous government in 2010 to set up a new power project to add to the state’s ambitious target of producing 25,000 mw power by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan period. The project was expected to start generation by 2014. However, the project did not get central clearance as relations between the Maya government and the Centre had reached rock bottom, with each trying to put the other’s projects on the back burner. “The state has already given an in-principle approval to allocate 2,500 acre of land and 80 cusecs of water for the project, in return of which, 75% power from the project shall be allocated to Uttar Pradesh,” said an official of the state government. ‘‘Power to all’’ is a target of the present state government and help from the Centre would be crucial in this regard, the official added. Speaking to FE, a senior official of the state energy department welcomed the Centre’s support for the project and said that power was crucial to help put the state back on the road to development.