Gorakhpur link expressway: Main carriageway expected to be completed by July-end
The 91.352-km access-controlled four-lane expressway begins at Jaitpur, Gorakhpur, and connects to the Poorvanchal Expressway at Salarpur in Azamgarh district
LUCKNOW UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority (Upeida) hopes to complete the Gorakhpur Link Expressway (main carriageway) by the end of July while the rest of the work on the service lanes is expected to be over by the end of 2024. The expressway connects Gorakhpur in east UP region to the Poorvanchal Expressway and the network of UP’s expressways.
About 98% of the work on the project, conceived following installation of Yogi Adityanath government, is complete. (Pic for representation)
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The 91.352-km access-controlled four-lane expressway begins at Jaitpur, Gorakhpur, and connects to the Poorvanchal Expressway at Salarpur in Azamgarh district. The districts that fall on the route include Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar and Sant Kabir Nagar. The link Expressway is being implemented in two packages.
About 98% of the work on the project, conceived following installation of Yogi Adityanath government, is complete. However, its project cost has been revised upwards by 23.93%. The cost, which was initially indicated to be around ₹5876.68 crore in 2019 has been revised to ₹7,283 crore, said those aware of the development.
“The project cost has been revised due to additional work because of rising demand for construction of underpasses on the way. Additional work led to the demand for additional land. We had to acquire additional land, shift utilities like electric poles and wires. Besides, the rate of GST went up from 12 % to 18%,” said a senior officer.
Umesh Raghuvanshi is an award-winning journalist with nearly four decades of demonstrated experience in the profession. He is the author of Ayodhya: The Gods Are Liberated. He is skilled in storytelling and newswriting, and writes on politics, governance, legislature, finance, environment, and social issues. He is based in Lucknow, is well-travelled, and has covered several national and international events, as well as all assembly and parliament elections in Uttar Pradesh since 1984. He has been a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and a Metcalf Fellow at the Metcalf Institute of Marine and Environmental Reporting, University of Rhode Island, USA. He is a science graduate from DBS College, Dehradun, and holds an MA in Political Science from DAV (PG) College, Dehradun. He won the KC Kulish International Merit Award for excellence in journalism (2015) and received it in New Delhi in 2017. He also won a competition organised by the United Nations Environment Programme DTIE OzonAction Programme in 2009 that assessed coverage of the interlinkages between ozone and climate change. He was awarded in Beijing, China, in 2010. He started his career with a Dehradun-based English daily in the early 1980s and later worked with The Pioneer too.
