The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with five firms for construction of the Rs.15,000-crore Lucknow-Agra Expressway.
The work on the project is likely to begin next month with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav laying the foundation stone of the six-lane greenfield mega road project.
“We have signed MoU with five infrastructure companies for the five various segments of the 302-km-long expressway that would connect Lucknow with Agra…Once complete, the project would be India’s biggest six-lane, access controlled expressway,” UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) Chief Executive Officer Navneet Sehgal told journalists here.
UPEIDA, which is executing the project, has decided to give bonus to companies that complete the construction work before schedule, while those who fail to meet the deadline would be penalised. “The idea behind this is to fast-track the project…The expressway would give boost to economic and industrial development of the state,” Mr. Sehgal added.
While Rs.11,500 crore would be spent on building the expressway, Rs.3,500 crore would be given as compensation towards land acquisition for the mega road project that passes through 10 districts - Agra, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auraiya, Kannauj, Kanpur City, Unnao, Hardoi and Lucknow.
The Samajwadi Party government wants the project to be completed before 2017 Assembly polls and has even reduced its construction deadline from 36 months to 30 months.
Being built under the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract, the expressway is expected to cut the travel time between Lucknow and Agra from around six hours to three hours. It would also ensure better connectivity between Lucknow and Delhi after it is merged with already operational Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway.
