In a tribute to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the UP government has decided to name the proposed Bundelkhand Expressway as Atal Path, which will pass through Bateshwar in Agra’s Bah tehsil, the ancestral village of former PM Vajpayee. The Uttar Pradesh government has released a fund of Rs 640 crore to make payments to the landowners. The proposed Bundelkhand Expressway is very crucial for the development of the most backward region of the state.
The Atal Path will be a four-lane 293-km-long project. According to officials, the project will start from Jhansi and pass through the most backward districts like Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur, Auraiya and Jalaun. From Jalaun, the expressway will pass through Etawah district and reach Naseempur via Bateshwar before joining the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
UP Transport Minister Swatantra Dev Singh said, “This is the best way to pay respect to the great statesman.” The government has issued Rs 210 crores to Jalaun followed by Rs 136 crore to Auraiya, Rs 100 crore to Banda, Rs 82 crore for Hamirpur and Rs 45 crore for Mahoba besides other districts to expedite the land acquisition process.
In 2017, Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath had announced the plan to connect Bundelkhand Expressway or the Atal Path to Agra Lucknow Expressway. The proposed Expressway will pass through Chitrakoot. Chitrakoot is a holy place famous both for its natural scenery and its spiritual altitude. It is a very sacred place for Hindus. It was in these deep forests of Chitrakoot that Bhagwan Ram, Sita and his brother Lakshmana spent eleven and a half years of their fourteen years of exile. This is the place believed to have been the abode of Bhagwan Ram, Sita, and Laxman during exile. Through this project, the pilgrimage in this area will also see a boost.
The estimated cost for the project is nearly Rs 10,000 crore. The mega infrastructure project by the government is aimed at boosting socioeconomic development in the extremely backward Bundelkhand region of the state. One of the main priorities of the BJP has always been the development of infrastructure in the country. Whenever the BJP comes in power, connectivity projects get a major boost, be it the golden quadrilateral project of the Vajpayee government or the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme of the Modi government.
The Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh has already started the construction of its ambitious 354-km, 8-lane Purvanchal Expressway, linking Lucknow to Ghazipur. The Purvanchal expressway will pass through the districts of Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau, and Ghazipur. Therefore, the western region of Uttar Pradesh will now be crossed in just 10 hours through roadways. On the same line, the state government will develop the Bundelkhand expressway which is a good sign for the region. The state will be comprehensively developed as infrastructure development will have positive impact on other developmental projects too.