Low traffic on the Purvanchal Expressway

The incomplete Lucknow Ring Road, high toll for heavy vehicles, and an incomplete bridge over the Ganga in Bihar are the reasons why the longest Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh is not getting as much as half the traffic envisaged. The agency tasked to collect toll on the Expressway of 342 km from May 1 now quit, marking a collection of only 45% of the target toll projected for the road. The showpiece Expressway from between Lucknow and Ghazipur had been inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi last November and toll was levied from May 1, having an envisaged target of almost Rs 65 lakh daily. Against a target of toll collection of approximately Rs 17 crore from May 1 to 26, the agency managed to collect less than Rs 7.5 crore, according to the minutes of the board meeting of UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) held on June 8. The Purvanchal Expressway will connect prime cities such as Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, and Allahabad via link roads. As the Lucknow Outer Ring Road is not completed the traffic from Delhi-NCR through the Yamuna Expressway and Agra-Lucknow Expressway cannot go smoothly to the Purvanchal Expressway and therefore, vehicles are using other roads. Image Source Also read: Maharashtra: construction work of the longest tunnel in state completed