92% land acquired, bidding process for Ganga Expressway within 60 days: UP Govt

“The Cabinet discussed 12 different issues. One of the most important was the network of expressways currently being built under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. This is going to help us achieve the dream of making UP a one trillion dollar economy,” said Singh.

“The Ganga Expressway will be the country’s largest expressway being built through a state. The approval for the project was given on November 26, 2020. The estimated total cost of civil and construction work on the Ganga Expressway project is Rs 36,230 crore, and Rs 19,754 crore will be spent on civil work. There is also a GST of Rs 2,371 crore on this. This makes the total to Rs 22,125 crore and a provision of Rs 9,255 crore has been made for the purchase of land,” he said.

According to the minister, 92.02 per cent of required land has already been acquired for the Ganga Expressway project.

“Tender documents, both RFQ (request for proposal) and RHP (request for quotation), are being brought out. This expressway will of six lanes which could be increased to eight lanes,” he said. The 594-km-long expressway will start from Meerut-Bulandshahr and reach Prayagraj district via Hapur, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Sambhal, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, and Pratapgarh. He said the construction of the expressway will be done on the public-private partnership (PPP) model with the concession agreement for a period of 30 years. “There are four packages of the expressway and the cost of each package will be between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 5,800 crore. The entire process of the tender will be completed within 60 days. The Cabinet has approved it enabling the start of work on the project at the earliest,” Singh added.

“The maximum speed of vehicles on this expressway has been fixed at 120 kmph. There will also be an airstrip on it. The chief minister has also said places, where industrial clusters are to be made, should be earmarked. Provision has also been made for public facilities on the expressway at nine places. In future, it will be increased further,” the minister said.

Hitting out at the previous Samajwadi Party government, Singh said that a similar announcement in the case of Purvanchal Express was made by the SP. “It was election time and they were in hurry. There is a provision that until 80 per cent of the land is not acquired, you cannot release the tender document. But they did. Today, while we are releasing the tender document, 92.02 per cent of the land acquisition has been completed,” Singh said.

The expressways are expected to conserve both fuel and time, and control environmental pollution, Singh said, adding that his government is hopeful that along with the economic development of places close to the expressway, the project would help in the development of agriculture, tourism and industries. “The expressway is also expected to provide great opportunities for setting up industrial training institutes, education and training institutes and medical institutes around it,” he said.

Meanwhile, on the Lalitpur airport project, the minister said, “It will be used for small aircraft in the first phase; and in the coming time, it will be an airport of international standards as a defence corridor is being built there.” “We are developing a Bulk Drug Park in Lalitpur district and a defence corridor in Bundelkhand. Because of the Drug Park and defence corridor, the usage of the airport will increase and therefore a big airport is being built in Lalitpur,” said Singh.

Today, the Cabinet gave its nod to buy 91.773 hectares of land in two villages in Lalitpur for Rs 86.65 crore, the minister said.