The union government has approved a 380-km long greenfield economic corridor connecting the two industrial hubs of Kanpur and Ghaziabad.
Passing through nine districts in western Uttar Pradesh (UP), the corridor will reduce the travel time between the two cities to just three hours.
The nine districts are Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Kasganj, Kannauj, Kanpur, Farrukhabad, Unnao and Hapur.
The project will likely be completed by 2025, and the highway will initially be four lanes wide. However, there are plans to develop the corridor to eight lanes.
“It was in September 2019 that Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had announced an economic corridor linking Ghaziabad with Kanpur,” a senior official from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was quoted in a report by The Times of India.
The officer added, “The idea was to cut travel time between the two industrial cities. On Thursday last week, the ministry gave its approval for the corridor.”
Currently, travelling between Kanpur and Ghaziabad takes six hours through the Yamuna Expressway and eight hours via the NH-9.
The detailed project report (DPR) for the upcoming corridor will be rounded up in a year. The four-lane corridor will first be expanded to six lanes at underpasses and culverts. Further, the land will be set aside for the highway to be widened to eight lanes later.