Tightening the noose around the Jaypee group, the Uttar Pradesh government last week cancelled the contractual agreement entered into by the Group and the UP government for constructing a 34-km inner ring road surrounding Agra.    

Sources said the cancellation was a result of the failure to meet some parts of the agreement. Following the meeting on the project on last Wednesday, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the bidding process would be started again, adding that though the road would still be built on the PPP model, the Jaypee Group, should they want to build the road, will have to participate in a fresh tendering process.    

In February 2010 when the BSP was in power, an agreement was signed between the Agra Development Authority and the Jaypee Group to construct a 34-km ring road around Agra on the PPP model. With the SP government having cancelled that agreement, a new bid will now be made on the PPP mode for which the Agra Development Authority has been made the nodal agency.    

The government sources also said that though the government would facilitate the acquisition of land for this road project, it will not, once the bidding process starts, intervene directly in the land acquisition process.