Lucknow , May 21: Despite the corona curfew that was imposed to bring down the surge of corona, the work on the Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh continued and it is likely to be thrown open to the commuters by the end of June.
CEO Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) Awanish Awasthi said here on Friday that corona has impacted the progress, but it is not that much which could have delayed the launch of the Greenfield expressway.
“Initially, I can say, there was an impact of 40 per cent because of surge of corona. But for the last fortnight, the work is going on almost at full steam. The labour who had gone away because of corona are back. Construction of only four structures, mainly ROBs, are to be completed. For the last two days we had a high downpour which has also affected the pace of the work. But we are confident that the Expressway will be thrown open to the public by June end,” Awasthi claimed.
The access-controlled road network is being developed by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the agency set up by the state government to steer its expressway expansion programme.
Some officials say that after Holi when corona started spreading like wildfire, the laborers left for their village. Some even left for Panchayat elections. But by April end the labour started returning to the camp site slowly and the project started gaining pace.
“The earth work of the Purvanchal Expressway is complete while the complete project, I can say, is 85-90 per cent complete. This will be over by next month and we will allow traffic by June end,” he said and added that instructions have been issued to officials to resolve any problem in the construction work there and then.
The 340 km long Purvanchal Expressway along with 294 km long Bundelkhand Expressway and 91 km long Gorakhpur link are set to transform Uttar Pradesh and will connect the West part of the state with the east. These Expressways interlinked with Yamuna Expressway and Agra-Lucknow Expressway will cut the travel time between Delhi to Ghazipur to just 12 hours, which now takes more than 20 hours.
Starting from Chand Saray village, located on the Lucknow-Sultanpur road, the Purvanchal Expressway will pass through Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkarnagar and Mau, before terminating at Hyderia village in Ghazipur.
Mr Durgesh Upadhya, Media advisor, UPEIDA said 89 percent of road work is complete and 95 per cent of the construction of small bridges and underpass has been completed. The work of major bridges, ROBs and flyovers is going on at a very fast pace and over 91 percent work is over, he said.(UNI)