LUCKNOW: To give a major infrastructural push to Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the 296-km-long Bundelkhand Expressway in Chitrakoot on Saturday.
The proposed expressway will give a much-needed fillip to the development of the backward region of Bundelkhand which has been craving for growth since independence. The proposed expressway, which is expected to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 14,716 crore, is likely to be completed by the year 2022.
Bundelkhand Expressway will be supplementing the nodes of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor awarded to UP by Central government in February 2018.
The expressway will pass through Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur and Jalaun districts.
It will bring Bundelkhand region into the mainstream by connecting it with the national capital through 302-km Agra-Lucknow Expressway and 250-km long Yamuna Expressway.
As per the broad route of the proposed four-lane access-controlled expressway, it will start from Bundelkhand’s Chitrakoot Dham (Karwi in UP) and will join Agra-Lucknow Expressway at Eatwah passing through Banda, Rath, Orai, Jalaun and Auriaya in central UP. It will be developed under the supervision of Uttar Pradesh Expressway and Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA).
The work on the prestigious project is already on with 95% land acquisition completed in February 2020. Four private firms -- Ashoka Buildcon, Apco Infratech, Dilip Buildcon and Gawar Construction—have been roped in by the state government to
complete the project.
Moreover, the PM will also launch 10,000 farmers producer organisations (FPO) all over the country at Chitrakoot on Saturday.
Nearly 86 per cent of farmers are small and marginal with average land holdings in the country being less than 1.1 hectares. FPOs (Farmer Producer Organisations) help in the collectivisation of such farmers in order to give them the collective strength to help them get better access to technology, input, finance and market for faster enhancement of their income.
Meanwhile, same day, the PM will also be in Prayagraj to distribute over 56,000 assistive aids like walking sticks and wheelchairs to over 27,000 beneficiaries including senior citizens and differently-abled persons at Parade Ground. The cost of the aids and devices is over Rs 19 crore.
The district administration is planning to pitch for creating a Guinness World Record of distributing the largest number of disability aids from a single location on a single day.