With the construction of Purvanchal and Bundelkhand expressways progressing rapidly, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has now shifted focus to his dream project -the 628-km-long Ganga Expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj, at a cost of over Rs 36,000 crore.
The state government is planning to lay the foundation stone of 594-km long six-lane ‘Ganga Expressway’in June 2021.
Yogi Adityanath has ordered the officials to ensure that the foundation stone for the 594-km-long six-lane expressway, expandable to eight-lane must be laid in June 2021 and 90 per cent of the land acquisition should be completed by then.
While issuing fresh directives to the departments concerned on Saturday (Nov 21), Yogi Adityanath asked the officials to get into ‘mission mode’ and bring the mega infra project on the ground soon.
Estimated to be build at the cost of Rs 36,410 crore, Rs 9255 crore will be spent towards the acquisition of land while Rs 22,145 crore will go to civil works.
The proposed Ganga expressway will cover 12 districts including Meerut, Bulandshahr, Hapur, Amroha, Sambhal, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, and Prayagraj.
Once completed and opened for use, the expressway will become the state’s longest, six-lane (expandable to eight lanes) expressway connecting western UP with eastern UP. The expressway will also drastically bring down the time taken to travel between the Meerut and Prayagraj. The design speed of the expressway will be 120 kmph whereas travelling speed will be 100 kmph.
Once completed, the total network of expressways in Uttar Pradesh will be 1,900 km.
The unique aspect of Ganga Expressway is that it will link other expressways in the state through Lucknow-Agra Expressway, Purvanchal Expressway and Ballia Link Expressway.
UP plans to invite international bids for a private-public partnership (PPP) to construct the 628-km-long Ganga Expressway
Additional Chief Secretary (Home) and UP Expressway Development Authority CEO A Awasthi described the project as “one of the biggest challenges” for the state government given its scale.
“In Phase-2 of this project, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wants us to take the Ganga Expressway up to Haridwar and Varanasi which will make its length over 1,000 km,” he said. This network of expressways will open the entire UP to Delhi and benefit Bihar as well, Awasthi said.
“We have seen that people prefer to move by road from Delhi to Lucknow through the Agra-Lucknow Expressway than by air. There is a jump in traffic on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway after the ‘unlock’ happened, as people now prefer their own transport,” Awasthi said.
Yogi Adityanath first unveiled the plan for construction of Ganga expressway during Kumbh Mela in 2019.