Yogi Adityanath was on a visit to Ghazipur and Azamgarh to inspect the construction work. (File)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said the construction of the six-lane Purvanchal Expressway will be completed by March and it will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April.
Yogi Adityanath was on a visit to Ghazipur and Azamgarh to inspect the construction work of the expressway.
"Once the Purvanchal Expressway is complete, people from Ghazipur can reach Lucknow in three hours and Delhi in 10 hours," he said at a programme in Ghazipur.
"The mafia had obstructed the pace of development in Uttar Pradesh (in the past) and now, the government is seizing their illegal properties," he added.
The campaign initiated against the mafia will continue and they will not be allowed to stay in Uttar Pradesh, the chief minister said.
He also appealed to the people's representatives to take the welfare programmes of the government to the public.
At Azamgarh, he said, "The construction work of the expressway is moving at a fast pace. By March, the expressway will be completed and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate it in April."
He said the expressway will be built in three years despite COVID-19, adding, "This model of development has become a centre of attraction for the country and the world."
"Azamgarh had a bad reputation till four years ago. People from here found it difficult to get rented accommodation in other cities, but the situation has changed in four years and Azamgarh is now becoming a model of development," he said.
Speaking at Lucknow later, the chief minister rued that earlier, even small projects that were supposed to be completed in a year took 10 to 12 years to complete.
"When the BJP government came to power in 2017, the Baan Sagar irrigation project was completed and dedicated to the nation. This project was planned in 1973 by the Planning Commission and the foundation was laid in 1978 by the then prime minister Morarji Desai, but it kept lying for almost 40 years," he said, adding that several schemes were announced but the works could not be carried out in a time-bound manner and the estimates were revised with the government not giving funds.
"Development used to suffer, youngsters were deprived of jobs and we used to lag behind in the country and in the world," he said, adding that on the other hand, the Purvanchal Expressway is all set to be ready before time, despite the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.
The 340-kilometre-long, six-lane Purvanchal Expressway will connect Lucknow with the economically underdeveloped districts of Uttar Pradesh such as Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar and Amethi.
The prime minister had laid the foundation stone of the project at Azamgarh in July 2018.