Uttar Pradesh: 594 Km Long Ganga Expressway Receives Forest Clearance

The 594 km Ganga Expressway which crisscrosses the state of Uttar Pradesh, has received forest clearance from the ministry of forest and environment.

The Ganga Expressway starts from NH-334 near the Bijauli village in the Meerut district and terminates at Prayagraj Bypass on NH-19 near Judapur Dandu village.

Traversing through 12 districts — Meerut, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Sambhal, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareilly, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj — the expressway would connect the eastern and western parts of the state.

Also, the state government has plans to extend the expressway at both ends — by 110 km from Meerut to Tigri on the Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand border and by 314 km from Prayagraj to Ballia, in the second phase of the project.

During the 75th board meeting of Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), chief executive officer Avnish Kumar Awasthi announced the updates about the Ganga Expressway.

According to Hindustan Times, he said that the regional empowered committee (REC) constituted by the ministry of forest and environment approved the proposal for forest clearance of the expressway.

The six-lane Ganga expressway will be built at over Rs 36,200 crore cost. The project has been divided into four groups to expedite work, each consisting of three packages.

While IRB bagged group 1, Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) has won contracts from UPEIDA to build three groups of the Ganga Expressway project in a deal worth Rs 17,085.16 crore.