LUCKNOW: Another crucial infrastructure project is set to take off in Uttar Pradesh. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has begun the process of aggregating land in 17 districts of the state before starting work on the Shamli-Gorakhpur high-speed corridor. The greenfield access-controlled expressway, spanning a distance of 742 km, has been planned as a key west-to-east speed corridor that is going to bring down the overall commute time as well as distance between northern states and northeastern parts of the country. The estimated cost of the expressway is expected to be close to Rs 40,000 crore.Both western and eastern regional offices of the highways authority would have to collaborate to give shape to the project. “The detailed project report was examined to finalise the alignment of the expressway. It would also pass via Haridwar in the neighbouring Uttarakhand for a brief while. The eway would extend between the Haryana border and Bihar border, providing an option to the vehicle owners to take the four-lane-wide carriageway instead of other routes,” said the regional officer, NHAI UP west, Gautam Vishal.From Panipat, a motorist would reach Shamli to enter the eway and get off at the Kushinagar border to head towards Bettiah, the headquarters of the West Champaran district in Bihar. Thereafter, the highways authority is planning to provide another eway to connect eastern UP with Siliguri in West Bengal via Bihar. The alignment of the project is going to run close to the Indo-Nepal border wherever possible in order to attract vehicles bound to Nepal and vice versa through it.The 742-km-long route would connect Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Haridwar, Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareli, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur (districts under the jurisdiction of NHAI west regional office in UP) and Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Balrampur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur and Kushinagar (under NHAI east regional office).While the west office would execute the 348-km-long stretch of the corridor, the east NHAI office would commission 394 km. Going to be the longest expressway of the state upon completion, exit ramps are going to be provided en route to link the major towns and destinations through its course. Officials said that Section 3A, the notification through which the procedure to acquire the land through concerned district administration is initiated, has already been issued across five districts of UP.While the main carriageway would be four lanes wide, the structures such as flyovers, railway overbridges, major bridges on water bodies are going to be six lanes wide. Officials added that the expressway could be ready for vehicular use by 2030. Officials added that spur routes and additional linkages with other important corridors are also being evaluated.
