PM Modi tweets on Purvanchal Expressway launch today, says ‘it’s a special day’

Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the project at 1:30pm on Tuesday in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

A day before he inaugurates the Purvanchal Expressway in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on Monday, calling it a ‘special day’ in the state’s growth trajectory. “Tomorrow is a special day for Uttar Pradesh’s growth trajectory. At 1:30PM, the Purvanchal Expressway will be inaugurated. This project brings with it multiple benefits for UP’s economic and social progress,” PM Modi tweeted.

The expressway is 341-kilometre long, begins at village Chaudsarai (Lucknow district) on National Highway-731 (Lucknow-Sultanpur Road) and terminates at village Hydaria (NH-31), 18-kilometre east of the border between Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) noted in a statement. It has six lanes at present, which can be expanded to eight in the future, the statement further said, adding that the project was constructed at an estimate cost of around ₹22,500 crore.

“The Purvanchal Expressway is going to give a boost to the economic development of the eastern parts of UP, especially the districts of Lucknow, Barabanki, Amethi, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur,” the release said.

The statement also said that after the inauguration, PM Modi and others will watch an airshow by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on the 3.2-km long airstrip laid on the expressway in the district of Sultanpur.

The project, has, however, sparked a war of words between the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP), with both parties taking credit for constructing the project. SP chief and former CM Akhilesh Yadav has asked his party workers to ‘symbolically’ inaugurate the expressway after he was denied permission to carry out a rally close to the venue of PM Modi’s programme. Yadav’s ‘Vijay Yatra’ was also scheduled for November 16.