For Chand Sarai, Poorvanchal expressway opens gateway of progress

Chand Sarai, the erstwhile ‘hamlet of milkmen’ in Gosaiganj area in Lucknow district has prospered after the construction of the Poorvanchal expressway, with land prices skyrocketing and business thriving

Lucknow: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Poorvanchal Expressway on Tuesday, residents of Chand Sarai village in Gosaiganj area of Lucknow saw the programme on a large screen and cheered.

The expressway has thrown open a lot many business opportunities for the people of Chand Sarai. (Sourced)

Small wonder they are thrilled, for the western end of the 340-km Expressway is located in the village and its construction has brought prosperity to Chand Sarai that was once called the ‘gwalon ka gaon’ (village of milkmen).

“The road has brought development to our village. While some families were given handsome compensation for their land, others benefited by opening business along the road,” said Pramod Kumar, 57, pradhan of the village.

The hamlet of over 6,000 residents had wide roads, concrete drains, street lights and community toilets that were made in the past three years, said Kumar. The prosperity is also reflected by the big colourful houses with wide porches that stand on both sides of the road leading to the village. Most of the houses have an SUV or two parked near the gates. The village has a government primary school but children from most households go to English medium schools in nearby Gosaiganj or in Lucknow city.

Alam is one of the 30 people whose land was taken for the construction of the expressway. “People in the village are approached regularly by real estate agents to broker a land deal for one or the other construction projects,” added Alam. Besides the Poorvanchal Expressway, the Lucknow-Sultanpur road also benefited the residents of the village.

The Sultanpur highway linked the village to the district headquarters some 20 km in north and helped business thrive along it. Several restaurants, shopping complexes, banquet halls and higher education colleges have come up along the road that provide business and employment to the villagers reducing their dependency on roads.

While highlighting the importance of the expressway and business opportunities it will bring in the coming days, they hope that a service lane will soon be made specially near the approach road of the expressway. “The absence of a service road near the approach road has turned it into an accident-prone zone. We hope that a service road will be constructed near it to facilitate easy and safe movement of local traffic,” said Sumit Kumar Pal, 55, another resident of Chand Sarai .