Bundelkhand: The 296-km expressway has been constructed at a cost of around Rs 14,850 crore by UPEIDA.
On the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bundelkhand Expressway, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the government of rushing to open the "half-complete" expressway and championing a "chaltaau" culture.
"The hurriedness in the inauguration of the half-complete Bundelkhand Expressway shows that its design is 'chaltaau' (make-do)," Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi on Saturday.
"So, even with Defence Corridor near to it, the BJP government could not construct an airstrip like the one constructed on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway during the Samajwadi Party government," he said.
The SP chief also tweeted a video along with his tweet.
The foundation stone of the four-lane expressway, which will connect Chitrakoot with the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, was laid by PM Modi in February 2020.
The project took 28 months to complete, according to the government.
The 296-km expressway, constructed at a cost of around Rs 14,850 crore by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), can later be expanded up to six lanes.
Extending from National Highway (NH)-35 at Gonda village near Bharatkoop in Chitrakoot district to near Kudrail village in Etawah district, where it merges with the Agra-Lucknow expressway, the expressway passes through Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya, and Etawah.
Along with improving connectivity in the region, the Bundelkhand Expressway is also expected to give a major boost to economic development and job creation.
Work on the creation of an industrial corridor in Banda and Jalaun district, next to the expressway, has already been started.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)