Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to inaugurate 340-km Purvanchal Expressway on 16 November

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 340-km Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh on 16 November. The expressway will connect eastern and western Uttar Pradesh. He had laid its foundation stone in July 2018, about a year after the Yogi Adityanath government came to power.According to a CNN-News18 report, the prime minister will land in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on 16 November around 11 am to inaugurate the state’s longest expressway at a 3-km long airstrip built on the road. A massive public meeting will also be held by the prime minister. During the inauguration programme, a fighter aircraft will land on the expressway airstrip.Built at a cost of Rs 42,000 crore, the expressway starts from Chand Sarai village in Lucknow and pass through Lucknow, Barabanki, Amethi, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. It is expected to not only reduce the travel time between parts of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, but also cut the travel time between Delhi and Bihar.The chief executive officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradesh Industrial and Expressways Development Authority (UPIEDA), Avanish Awasthi informed that the Purvanchal Expressway will act as a lifeline for east Uttar Pradesh. He said with the construction of the expressway, it would become easy to cover UP from Delhi through the road. The expressway can be expanded to eight lanes in future.The Yogi Adityanath-led government claims that the expressway will not only open the way for industrial activities, but also boost development of Purvanchal and provide employment to a large number of people.Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year, the prime minister is set to inaugurate a slew of projects, including the Purvanchal Expressway. The other projects set to be inaugurated are the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project, the Ganga Expressway, the Jewar International Airport, a film city project, a manufacturing unit in the Jhansi node of a proposed defence corridor, and an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Gorakhpur.With input from agencies