Kanpur: Nothing special was announced for Kanpur Nagar in the UP Budget 2026, though the city was included in allocations for infrastructure and facility development.Kanpur Nagar was among 17 municipal corporations that were to be developed as solar cities in the state, a move that would help the city become self-sufficient in the power sector.The budget proposed Rs 750 crore for development of infrastructure facilities under Meerut, Mathura, Vrindavan, and Kanpur Development Authorities. KDA can for betterment of already developed projects at parks, roads and residential houses.Kanpur Nagar was placed among 100 selected cities of the country under the Smart City Mission scheme. As many as 10 cities of the state were included in the list and Kanpur was one of them. It would gear up the projects being executed in the city under smart mission. Several works worth several crores were executed in the city earlier.The state government made a provision of Rs 50 crore for EV charging stations in the state, and there were possibilities that Kanpur would get its share and new EV charging stations would be raised.The budget also proposed to establish the polytechnic institutions as centres of excellence and for that a sum of Rs 714 crore was earmarked. From this budget, Government Polytechnic Vikas Nagar would be developed. Besides, new skill development centres and job placement centres would be established in the budget and Kanpur would get few of them.Industrialist Umang Agarwal said that the budget was good and a provision of Rs 10,000 crore for the MSME sector was commendable. Small industries would be benefited with this fund. He said if the separate budget allocation was made for different industries then it would be more helpful. Agarwal said that industry requires subsidies for enhancement of export. The expected growth in export was not possible till exporters would not get encouragement. The budget had promised to raise one lakh micro industries and it should be executed.Asad Iraqi, regional chairman of Council for Leather Export, said that the leather sector had high hopes from the budget. Several sectors benefited but the leather industry still requires some more effort. He suggested that UPCIDA land allocated for the leather industry should be given freehold to benefit the leather industry. Every entrepreneur thinks first about lease land but if it would be free hold, then outsider entrepreneurs too would be attracted to invest in UP, he said.
