Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the 296-km four-way Bundelkhand Expressway in Uttar Pradesh, built at a cost of Rs 14,850 crore.
Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the expressway, Modi hit out at previous governments for the lack of connectivity and said the "double-engine" government now was ensuring major transformation of the state.
He said the distance from Chitrakoot to Delhi by the Bundelkhand expressway has been reduced by three-four hours, but its benefit is much more than that. "This expressway will not only give speed to the vehicles, but will also accelerate the industrial progress of the entire Bundelkhand," he said. Under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's leadership, Uttar Pradesh is seeing major transformation with better law and order and fast-improving connectivity, Modi said, and asked people to recall the state of law and order and connectivity in Uttar Pradesh earlier.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, however, slammed Modi and accused the government of rushing to open the "half-complete" expressway. "The hurriedness in the inauguration of the half-complete Bundelkhand Expressway shows that its design is 'chaltaau' (make-do), Akhilesh said in a tweet in Hindi on Saturday.
The foundation stone of the expressway, which will connect Chitrakoot with the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, was laid by Modi in February 2020. It will later be expaned up to 6 lanes.
Extending from National Highway (NH)-35 at Gonda village near Bharatkoop in Chitrakoot district to near Kudrail village in Etawah district, where it merges with the Agra-Lucknow expressway, the expressway passes through Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya, and Etawah.
-with PTI inputs