Ganga Expressway in Uttar Pradesh to soon see the light of the day! Said to be India’s longest expressway, the ambitious Ganga expressway project, is on fast-track under Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government. Over a decade after former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati announced the ambitious expressway project worth Rs 40,000 crore, incumbent Yogi Adityanath government has devised a smart strategy in order to make sure the project is executed. The phase 1 of the 1,020 km Ganga expressway will come up at cost of over Rs 20,000 crore providing a major boost to road infrastructure in the state.
According to details accessed by Financial Express Online from Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) website, the approval for submitting the Detailed Project Planning (DPR) of the project was given on February 6. A meeting of UPEIDA was held on February 11. Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh and Chief Executive Officer of UPEIDA headed the meeting. The CEO said that the Ganga Expressway project announced earlier could not be implemented. However, this time the expressway is being constructed at a distance of 10 km from the river Ganga. This has been done with an aim to comply with the environmental regulations as well as give local residents maximum benefits, according to details of the meeting. The Board of directors have been informed about the details and necessary approval has been granted, as per the minutes of the meeting.
The total length of the Ganga Expressway will be 1,020 km. The expressway will be built in two phases. In phase one, 596 km road stretch from Meerut to Prayagraj will be built. In Phase two, 110 km road will be built from Tigri to Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand Border and another section of 314 km will be built from Prayag Raj to Ballia.
During Phase 1 of the Ganga Expressway project, the alignment will be done from Meerut to Prayagraj. The phase one of Ganga Expressway will start from Outer Ring Road of Meerut Junction SH78 and will end at Village Malwan Khurd (Dist. Prayagraj) on Jhansi-Sahson road.
The first phase of Ganga Expressway will cover 12 districts. These districts are Meerut, Jyotibha Phule Nagar, Hapur, Sambhal, Budaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj.
There will be four lanes (expandable to six lane green field), right of way 110 metres with a design speed 120 km/hr. There will be five major river bridges – River Ganga, River Ram Ganga, River Garra. There will be 8 road over bridges and 18 flyovers will be constructed.
The tentative project cost of phase one of Ganga Expressway: Civil works construction cost is projected at Rs 22,090.06 crore. There will be additional land acquisition cost of Rs 35,952 crore. The funding of the project will be done by a combination of debt (70 per cent) and equity (30 per cent).
