- For decades, the Purvanchal area of Uttar Pradesh was dominated by corrupt and criminal leaders.
- In the 2017 assembly election, Purvanchal voted overwhelmingly for BJP with more than 70 percent seats to the party.
- Purvanchal Expressway, arguably the largest infrastructure project in the state to date, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi yesterday.
For decades, the Purvanchal area of Uttar Pradesh was dominated by corrupt and criminal leaders. From Mukhtar Ansari to Brijesh Singh, Dhananjay Singh to Harishankar Tiwari, the area was dominated by mafia-politicians. This is the main reason why the Purvanchal remained poor and backward despite having fertile land and other natural resources. The Purvanchal area is more comparable to Bihar than Uttar Pradesh in terms of development, thanks to decades of neglect and lawlessness.
But, with Yogi Adityanath, a Purvanchali coming to power in the state, the revival of the region that has been historically among the richest parts of the country, has started. In the 2017 assembly election, Purvanchal voted overwhelmingly for BJP with more than 70 percent seats to the party. And Yogi Adityanath has left no stone unturned to ensure that the region gets its fair share in the state budget.
Purvanchal Expressway, arguably the largest infrastructure project in the state to date, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi yesterday. The ambitious highway will link central UP with eastern UP. Western UP is already connected through the 302 km long Agra-Lucknow Expressway. Agra and Delhi are connected through the 205km long Yamuna Expressway.
The Purvanchal Expressway will serve as the link between Delhi and the easternmost border of UP. After the completion of this project, the whole of Uttar Pradesh can be crisscrossed in 10 hours. The Purvanchal Expressway will pass through the districts of Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau, and Ghazipur.
The expressway cost around 23,000 crore rupees and was implemented by the UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA). It is arguably among the most efficient infrastructure project in the country because there was no time or cost overrun. On 10 July 2018, TFI published a story titled “Ambitious Purvanchal Expressway to link Eastern and Western ends of Uttar Pradesh” and in the story, the estimated time for project completion was given three years as per the press release of the UP government. The Yogi government completed it in the same amount of time of money, something unheard and unseen in India.
The expressway is a step towards completing the infrastructure requirements of eastern Uttar Pradesh which is one of the underdeveloped regions of the state. The Purvanchal area of UP is among the poorest regions of the country with most of the districts receiving The Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF), an Indian government program to address regional imbalances in development.
The population density of the region is very high and most of the people depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The industrial and infrastructural development in the region is almost negligible due to government negligence as well as its geographical location. The workforce is moving to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Calcutta to find work in order to survive and send remittance home.
The other key projects are 91 km long Gorakhpur link expressway which will connect the constituency of CM with the Purvanchal expressway. The 195 Km long Prayagraj Expressway which will connect Allahabad with Purvanchal Expressway near Lucknow is the third big-ticket infrastructure project being envisaged by the UP government.
The other project which has been renamed as Atal Path (Previously named Bundelkhand Expressway) will be a four-lane 293-km-long. 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 highway will pass through Etawah district and reach Naseempur via Bateshwar before joining the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
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The latest infrastructure projects will immensely contribute to the economic growth of the state. The pro-business stance of the Yogi government has boosted investors’ confidence in UP and recently, many multinationals like Ikea, Vivo, and Samsung made investments in the state. Under the able leadership of Yogi Aditynath, the rule of law prevails in the state and terms like corruption and Gunda Raj have become totally obsolete.
