Media adviser of Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), Durgesh Upadhyay, told the media that the Bundelkhand Expressway will be inaugurated in the second week of June this financial year. The 296-kilometre-long expressway was presented by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in April 2017, just months after he took office for the first time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the expressway's construction in February 2020. The expressway passes via the districts in UP's part of Bundelkhand — Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda, Jalaun, and Auraiya. The expressway takes off from Bharatkoop on National Highway 35, which is also called the Varanasi-Banda road, in the Chitrakoot district, and ends around Etawah district's Kudrail village on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway. The expressway will connect Chitrakoot with the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Etawah, which is connected to the National Capital Region (NCR) via the state's two operational expressways — 302-km Lucknow-Agra Expressway and the 165-km Yamuna Expressway. The expressway was divided into six packages for its construction. Two packages were awarded to Apco Infratech and Gawar Constructions Limited and one each to Dilip Buildcon and Ashoka Buildcon. Apart from connecting the backward Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh with the National Capital Region, the expressway is essential for the success of the UP Defence Corridor. Two of the six nodes of the defence corridor — Jhansi and Chitrakoot — lie in Bundelkhand. The expressway will also help increase tourism in the region. Bundelkhand is flanked in the east and the west by the state's two most famous tourist circuits. To the west lies the Agra-Mathura-Fatehpur Sikri circuit and the Prayagraj-Sarnath-Varanasi triangle lies to the east of the area. The new expressway will connect Chitrakoot to Agra and NCR, allowing tourists to travel to the temple town more easily than earlier. Image Source Also read: NHAI to construct 14.80 km six-lane bypass ahead of Bhandara city