The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to bid out the construction works for a greenfield expressway between Lucknow and Kanpur very shortly. The 63-km expressway, to be built at an investment of ₹4,200 crore, is one of the first six greenfield expressways which the government has identified under the first phase of Bharatmala Pariyojana. Union transport minister, Nitin Gadkari, informed that the land acquisition is nearly complete and the alignment has been fixed. The expressway will be of 4/6 lanes and can be expanded to six lanes as per the future requirements. The new road would help reduce the congestion on the existing NH connecting the two cities in the state. In a paradigm shift, the government has given top priority to building of greenfield expressways and highways over the expansion of existing highways to accelerate high-quality road development under the Bharatmala programme and a total of 23 such road networks are being developed under this scheme.
