Purvanchal Expressway: Here's All You Need To Know

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 340-km-long Purvanchal expressway in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. It will connect the state capital Lucknow with Ghazipur in eastern UP. PM Modi landed on Purvanchal Expressway in an Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. The six-lane-wide expressway is expected to speed up the development of eastern UP, including Barabanki, Amethi, Ayodhya and Ambedkar Nagar.

The Prime Minister also addressed a large gathering in Sultanpur following the inauguration. He said that the Purvanchal Expressway "will unite UP" and added that when he laid the foundation stone of the project he had not thought he would one day land on it in an aircraft. “This highway will benefit the poor, middle class, farmers, and traders," PM Modi added.

Here's all you need to know about the expressway:

-- Purvanchal Expressway is a six-lane controlled-access expressway, which can be expanded to eight lanes in future. PM Modi laid the foundation stone of the expressway in July 2018 in Azamgarh. Three years later, he inaugurated it in Sultanpur.

-- Built at a cost of Rs 22,500 crore, the highway starts from Chandsarai village in Lucknow district and terminates at Haidaria village in Ghazipur district, near the UP-Bihar border.

-- The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) has been asked to develop industrial hubs on land banks along the expressway. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that the expressway will be the prime mover of development of the state's eastern region.

-- The highway has been built keeping in mind the speed limit of 120 kmph but vehicles will be allowed to run at 100 kmph for safety reasons. It will allow travellers to drive from Delhi to eastern UP in just 10 hours, saving fuel and time. The travel time between Lucknow and Ghazipur will also be reduced from 6 hours to 3.5 hours.

-- The Purvanchal expressway has 22 flyovers, seven railway-over-bridges, seven major bridges and 114 minor bridges. It will have CNG stations, electric vehicle recharge stations.

-- It will be connected with the defence corridor via Agra and Bundelkhand expressways. Several dry runs were conducted by IAF aircraft before the inauguration and Prime Minister Modi's landing on Tuesday.