Ganga Expressway project

The Uttar Pradesh state government has approved an ambitious 594-km long Ganga Expressway project on November 25. The expressway will run along the river from Haridwar to Allahabad. It will be implemented by Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority.

Key Points

• The Ganga Expressway between the 2 cities of state will pass through various districts of the state namely- Hapur, Meerut, Amroha, Sambhal, Shahjahanpur, Pratapgarh, Bulandshahar, Unnao, Hardoi, Rae Bareli, Badaun, and Prayagraj.
• The expressway will start from NH-235, near Meerut’s Shankarpur village and will end at Prayagraj’s NH 330 near Soraon.
• It will also link other expressways in the state- Ballia Link Expressway, Lucknow-Agra Expressway and Purvanchal Expressway.
• The state government decided to monetize the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and also to explore the option of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the project.
• The Ganga Expressway provides faster connectivity from Hardwar to Allahabad, parallel to the river Ganga. It is also expected to boost the social and economic development of the state.

Cost of Ganga Expressway project

• The outlay of the project is Rs 36,402 crore and SBI Capital Market Limited is the financial advisor for the project.
• As per reports, division of the outlay is as follow- the cost of the construction of the expressway will be approximately Rs 22,145 crore; around Rs 9,255 crore will be spent on land acquisition and Rs 5000 crore is for other costs.

The project is expected to be completed by the year 2024 and the UP Chief Minister will inaugurate the project probably in June 2021. Once the expressway project will complete, Uttar Pradesh will have a total network 1,900 km expressways.

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