Uttar Pradesh is set to get another expressway.National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has appointed a consultant for preparing detailed project report (DPR) for 500-kilometre-long Gorakhpur-Shamli expressway.
The final router of the proposed expressway will be known only after the DPR is finalised.This will be third expressway to start from Gorakhpur. Currently, a link expressway to connect the Purvanchal Expressway is being constructed in the region. A DPR is being prepared for another 519-kilometer-long road which will link Gorakhpur to Siliguri in West Bengal, it further said.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath recently spoke how the number of expressways increased significantly in Uttar Pradesh in the last few years. He was speaking at a function in Shajahanpur where Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Ganga Expressway.
He said that from 1947 to 2017, just one expressway was built in the state, but since then six expressways are being made.
The 594-kilometre-long Ganga Expressway is expected to be the longest expressway in Uttar Pradesh. It is being built at a cost of ₹36,200 crore.
Starting near Bijauli village in Meerut, the Ganga Expressway will extend till near Judapur Dandu village in Prayagraj via Meerut, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Sambhal, Budaun, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, and Pratapgarh.
The expressway will have a 3.5-kilometre long air-strip for assisting emergency take-off and landing of Air Force planes in Shahjahanpur.
The Ganga Expressway is set to reduce the travel time between Delhi and Prayagraj to just 7 hours. It was approved on November 26, 2020, and will be ready for commute by 2024.