Now Reading: Fresh cracks on UP’s Ganga Expressway near Unnao after repairs
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Fresh cracks on UP’s Ganga Expressway near Unnao after repairs
Fresh cracks have appeared on repaired sections of Uttar Pradesh's Ganga Expressway near Unnao, just over a week after a 10-metre-deep crater opened on another stretch of the Rs 36,230-crore highway after…
Fresh cracks have appeared on repaired sections of Uttar Pradesh's Ganga Expressway near Unnao, just over a week after a 10-metre-deep crater opened on another stretch of the Rs 36,230-crore highway after heavy rain. The National Highways Authority of India had carried out patchwork on the damaged section following earlier reports of soil settlement and erosion.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked the ruling BJP over the damage, calling the cracks evidence of corruption and warning that lives were at risk. The 594-km, six-lane expressway connecting Meerut to Prayagraj was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29. It was projected to cut travel time between the two cities from 12 hours to about six hours.
The project has suffered multiple damage incidents since July, when a seven-metre approach road collapsed near the Sonic toll plaza in Unnao after heavy rain. The August 18 crater near kilometre 421 washed away a stretch of road and embankment, raising questions about the expressway's drainage and construction quality in rain-prone areas.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The Ganga Expressway is built under the Centre's Bharatmala Pariyojana programme, which targets 83,677 km of new highways by 2031-32. NHAI, the project implementer, contracts construction to private developers through engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) or hybrid-annuity models. Under EPC, the state bears cost overruns and the contractor is liable for defects for five years after completion. The repeated failures in heavy rain suggest drainage design or compaction standards may have been inadequate for Unnao's soil conditions. The Meerut-Prayagraj route serves 12 districts including Kanpur and Lucknow, daily traffic data is not yet public. NHAI typically reviews such failures through its quality assurance wing, the next quarterly performance report on Uttar Pradesh highway projects is expected by December 2026.
Source: indiatoday.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
