Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday inspected the under-construction 94-kilometre long Outer Ring Road project at Mati crossing on Lucknow’s outskirts.
The stretch, which the home minister inspected, will connect Dewa Road with Kursi Road and is expected to help decongest the city roads making travel easier.
The union home minister, who has also written to the state government expressing his dismay at the progress of projects in his constituency, especially during the Samajwadi Party rule, was not happy with the pace of work on the project that was originally supposed to be completed by 2019, when he is likely to seek re-election from Lucknow in the Lok Sabha election.
He had also asked officials to fix responsibility for the delay in execution of the project.
Singh later said that the outer ring road— christened as Kisan Path — will be completed in maximum three years. Rajnath claimed that around 2 km of road is being constructed every day. “Once ready, the road will change the picture of Lucknow,” he said.
After being elected the Lucknow MP in 2014 elections, Rajnath was besieged by complaints of traffic snarls in his constituency. It was then that in consultation with his Lucknow representative Diwaker Tripathi, former chairman of the Lucknow Development Authority, that he envisaged the project, which, when ready, would connect 104 villages, five national highways and 6 state highways with Lucknow.
The home minister also had a brief interaction with officials of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the agency tasked with outer ring project. The state government is acquiring the land for the project.
He instructed the officials to complete the work as soon as possible so that the residents of Lucknow could get rid of traffic bottlenecks.
The NHAI officials claimed machines imported from Germany are being used in laying the road.
The estimated cost of the road is around Rs 5,500 crore. Earlier this month, the home minister had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to accelerate the pace of the project.
The ring road will connect Rae Bareli Road, Sultanpur Road and Kanpur Road and Lucknow-Agra Expressway on the outskirts of the city.
As per the plan, the road will have four big overbridges, 42 small overbridges, five railway overbridges, eight flyovers, 26 underpasses for vehicles, three underpasses for pedestrians, and two inter-change roads.
The home minister also had a brief meeting with party leaders and elected representatives of the area at a resort on Dewa Road. He also planted a sapling at the site.
‘WON’T LET INDIA DOWN’
Barabanki: Amid fresh shelling by Pakistan on Indian positions along the International Border and the LoC, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that the government would not let the country down even in adverse circumstances.
“Paristhitiyaan kitni bhi pratikul kyon naa ho, hum Bharat ka mastak kisi bhi surat mein jhukne nahi denge (Under no circumstances, however adverse they may be, we will never let India down),” he said.
Singh, on the last day of his three-day visit to Uttar Pradesh, was speaking at a public meeting here, but did not name Pakistan.
The home minister said, “...Bharat ab kamzor desh nahi rah gaya, vishwa samudaay ki Bharat ke prati dharna badal chuki hai (India is no longer a weak nation. It has become a strong nation and its image before the world has changed.”
He said India had given a bold message to the world community that any insult to the country would not be tolerated. PTI
