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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that his government was committed to making Purvanchal Expressway operational by April next. He reviewed the ongoing construction at six spots in Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Sultanpur, and Lucknow on Monday.
“We are hoping to get the Expressway functional by April next and I visited the construction site to ascertain the progress of the project,” the CM said after an aerial survey of the project.
“The Purvanchal Expressway will create huge opportunities for the development of UP, especially the eastern part. Once the Expressway is functional we will also be establishing industrial clusters to provide employment to the youth of the state,” said the CM.
Yogi also asked officials to complete the work of signage and directed local administrations to develop MSME clusters with the help of supporting construction companies. He was apprised that 77 percent of the construction work was complete and the rest would be completed by March so that it could be opened for traffic in April.
On the Purvanchal Expressway, the Chief Minister said, “The world will see that the Expressway for which construction was started in 2018, will get functional in April 2021. Within this time, we also faced the pandemic but we overcame it.”
Describing the role of Expressway in Azamgarh, the CM stated, “Earlier, people were scared of the name of Azamgarh but now the scenario has completely changed. A city where people were wary of staying back till four years ago, are now happily starting businesses and have no problems. Development of Azamgarh will be further augmented after the completion of the Expressway.”
Yogi also announced that his government was working towards setting up a university in Azamgarh for which acquisition of land would be completed soon. He asked officers to get construction of Purvanchal Expressway completed by April 1 and fix the launch schedule by April 15, 2021.
Attacking opposition parties, the CM said, “Under previous regimes, projects with a deadline of one year were routinely completed in 12 years but after our government was sworn in the work culture has witnessed a drastic change.”
The 340.8-kilometre-long Purvanchal Expressway is one of the dream projects of the Chief Minister. Its estimated cost is around Rs 22,000 crore, including land acquisition. The highway has six-lanes (which can be extended to eight lanes) and starting from Lucknow passes through Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ajodhya, Ambedkarnagar, Azamgarh and Mau.
Earlier, the Chief Minister also ordered the extension of the Expressway to Ballia which was to end at Haidariya in Ghazipur.