Akhilesh Yadav seems quite perturbed by the upcoming inauguration of Purvanchal Expressway by PM Narendra Modi. 341 km of Purvanchal Expressway will connect nine districts of UP – Lucknow, Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkarnagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. With 36% attendance in the 17th Loksabha, Akhilesh Yadav is the worst performing MP from Uttar Pradesh. He rarely visits his constituency – Azamgarh – and what’s making Akhilesh Yadav nervous is the fact that it is the Yogi Adityanath government that is connecting his constituency with a high-speed expressway.
Recently in an interview with a leading Hindi channel, Akhilesh travelled on the Expressway and made multiple contradictory and false claims. Akhilesh Yadav seemed to have memorised some road specifications, terms and jargon before the interview but used the terms interchangeably, passed off misinformation as facts and gathered a handful of Samajwadi Party supporters to shout vehemently to validate his assertions. The media, as usual, broadcasted his lies without doing their own fact-check or telling people what the truth is. Let me expose Akhilesh Yadav’s lies on Purvanchal Expressway
Akhilesh’s Lie # 1: Purvanchal Expressway is Samajwadi Party’s Project and Yogi Government is taking its credit
Fact: The Expressway was mere an idea on paper during the Akhilesh regime, which saw the light of day under the Yogi Adityanath government. In fact, the detailed project report (DPR) of the Purvanchal Express of Akhilesh Yadav’s time was faulty and was completely re-worked upon by the Yogi government. The route alignment was optimized saving almost Rs 3,000 crore of taxpayers’ money in the process. On one hand, Akhilesh Yadav claims that Purvanchal Expressway is his project and the Samajwadi Party government made the Purvanchal Expressway and in the same sentence he contradicts himself by saying that Yogi Government has compromised with the quality of the Purvanchal expressway. The irony is that in 2021 Akhilesh Yadav drove on the Purvanchal Expressway first time in life, which he claims to be his project from 2012-2017.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 2: Akhilesh Yadav issued the tender for Purvanchal Expressway during his tenure, which Yogi government cancelled later.
Fact: Akhilesh Yadav issued a tender for the Purvanchal Expressway when even 25% of the land was not acquired. Even to issue a tender for such a large EPC contract, the government has to acquire at least 90% of the land before issuing a tender. Alignment was faulty and overlapped with the central government’s national highway projects. And so, it was cancelled by the Yogi government and fresh DPR was worked upon.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 3: As per Indian Road Congress (IRC), median for such highways should be 12 to 14 meters.
Fact: As per guidelines of Indian Road Congress (IRC) minimum desirable width of the median of the road in rural highways should be 3-5m and urban highways be 2.5m. But in his over-enthusiasm to impress the journalists in his interviews Akhilesh Yadav is misquoting these days that the Indian Road Congress (IRC) recommends a median of 12-14 meters.
Let’s compare the median of Agra-Lucknow Expressway of Akhilesh Yadav’s time and Purvanchal Expressway of Yogi Adityanath’s rule. The median width of the Agra-Lucknow Expressway is 4.5 m and the soft shoulder width is 1.5 m on both sides of the route, whereas in Purvanchal Expressway this width is 5.5 m and 2.0 m respectively. So, the embankment of Purvanchal Expressway is 2m wider than that of Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
Median of Purvanchal Expressway has a provision of a W-beam crash barrier for the safety of vehicles on both sides and the anti-glare screen has also been made for the turns of radius less than 4,000 meters. For the construction of the Purvanchal Expressway, 120 m width of land has been purchased. Whereas only 110 m wide ‘Right of Way’ (ROW) was purchased for Agra-Lucknow Expressway
Akhilesh’s Lie # 4: Riding quality of Purvanchal Expressway is not good
Fact: The standards of riding quality maintained for Purvanchal Expressway is 1800 mm per km per lane as per the norms of the Indian Road Congress (IRC). This is already been tested extensively by the third-party technical evaluators using laser profile meters.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 5: Silicone Sheets were not used while making the Purvanchal Expressway to check Soil erosion
Fact: Purvanchal Expressway used an advanced technology of Geocell to check soil erosion. In this technique, Geocells are laid on the slopes of embankments, the soil is filled over it and then plantation is done on the soil bed. This technique adds to the aesthetics and is environment friendly.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 6: There is no service lane on the Purvanchal Expressway to connect the nearby towns and villages
Fact: Across the 341 km length of Purvanchal Expressway, there is a provision of 397Kms of service lanes – Someplace on one side in staggered form and at some places both the sides, based on the requirement.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 7: There is no provision of amenities like toilets etc along with Purvanchal Expressway
Fact: Agra-Lucknow Expressway half-built by Akhilesh Yadav’s government has only 4 amenity centres with toilet blocks across the length of 300kms. These 4 blocks also got active only in 2018, whereas Akhilesh Yadav launched the expressway in 2016. Purvanchal Expressway has the provision for 16 amenity centres across the length of 341 kms – 8 large public convenience centres, with refreshment centres and toilet blocks and 8 smaller ones. Agra-Lucknow Expressway was started in hurry without any fuel station. In Purvanchal Expressway fuel stations at 8 places are already being allocated to oil companies.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 8: The quality of lighting is not good at the Purvanchal Expressway, which may cause problems in driving at night.
Fact: Agra-Lucknow Expressway half-built by Akhilesh Yadav’s government has the provision of lights at public convenience centres, interchange spots, on larges bridges and toll plazas.
In Purvanchal Expressway along with these spots provision of lights are also there on all the small bridges and underpasses also. Standard reflectors are mounted as per the road norms across the entire length of the highway.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 9: BJP government selected inexperience players to build the Purvanchal Expressway.
Fact: The work of different segments (packages) of Purvanchal Expressway is allocated to well-reputed contractors based on the fair and transparent e-tendering process. These are – Gayatri Projects, APCO Infratech, GR Infra Projects, PNC Infratech and Oriental Structural Engineers. All of these are very reputed infrastructure companies of India and executed multiple high-value, high-quality projects across the nation. In fact, some of these contractors executed projects for some projects in the Akhilesh government also.
Akhilesh’s Lie # 10: BJP government has used different standards than those proposed by the Akhilesh government
Fact: In fact, this charge is right. Let’s analyze the intricate details. The series of expressways made or under-construction in Yogi’s regime are marked with superior engineering design standards. If we do an engineering comparison of Agra-Lucknow Expressway of Akhilesh Yadav’s time and Purvanchal Expressway of Yogi Adityanath’s rule – the difference is clear. I am repeating what I wrote in point number 3# that – The median width of Agra-Lucknow Expressway is 4.5 m & the soft shoulder width is 1.5 m on both sides of the route, whereas in Purvanchal Expressway this width is 5.5 m and 2.0 m respectively. So, the embankment of Purvanchal Expressway is 2 m wider than that of Agra-Lucknow Expressway. Median of Purvanchal Expressway has a provision of a W-beam crash barrier for the safety of vehicles on both sides and the anti-glare screen has also been made for the turns of radius less than 4,000 meters. For the construction of Purvanchal Expressway, 120 m width of land has been purchased. Whereas only 110 m wide ‘Right of Way’ (ROW) was purchased for Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated the Agra-Lucknow Expressway hurriedly in 2016 when it was only 80% complete. It’s evident that the Agra-Lucknow expressway was made in haste, compromising the construction quality by the Akhilesh government. Within just one year of its hasty inauguration, an SUV Car plunged 15-20 feet after road caved on a crack in the Agra-Lucknow expressway. Many incomplete works of Agra-Lucknow Expressway were completed after the Yogi govt took charge in March 2017. List of unfinished works on Agra-Lucknow Expressway is long, which were completed by the Yogi government – 800 m long Bituminous Concrete, one long bridge, four Interchange bridges, 22.2 km long crash barrier, 37.5 Kms of road marking, 200 Kms of road signage, 289 Kms of medium fencing and 178 Kms of ROW.
In any TV debate on UP infrastructure, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) spokespersons talk about 165 Km Greater Noida-Agra Expressway built in their times and any Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson flaunts 302 Kms of Agra-Lucknow expressways built in their times. In the last 15 years of SP+BSP rule, the people of Uttar Pradesh built only 467 kms of expressways, that too limited only to western UP. In contrast, with Purvanchal Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway – the Yogi government is adding a whopping 641 Kms to the expressways’ road infrastructure in the state of Uttar Pradesh. And this 641 Kms will be achieved by the Yogi government in five years vs the 467 Kms of SP+BSP governments in 15 years. And with 91 Kms Gorakhpur Link Expressway and 600 Kms Ganga Expressway, Uttar Pradesh will enter a different league of high-quality road networks across the state. That’s why in 2020, even PM Narendra Modi praised Yogi Adityanath that Uttar Pradesh is becoming an ‘Express State’ under Yogi Adityanath’s leadership.
