Uttar Pradesh Expressway Development Authority (UPEIDA), the nodal agency for the expressway's construction in the state, will acquire the land required for the Ghazipur-Manjhighat greenfield highway.

The 115-kilometre (km) long four-lane highway will be built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The NHAI will also construct an about 24-km long link road to join the highway with the Purvanchal Expressway. With the construction of the two roads, the Purvanchal Expressway, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi late last year, will be connected to Ballia, UP's easternmost district.

Media advisor to UPEIDA, Durgesh Upadhyay, told the media that under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked with NHAI on Wednesday, UPEIDA will acquire the land for both the roads.

However, the funding required for acquiring land will be provided by NHAI, the senior UPEIDA official said, adding that the land acquisition process will start very soon.

With the 340-km long Purvanchal Expressway connected to the Ballia district on the border with Bihar, the traffic on the recently operationalised e-way will improve significantly, Upadhyay said.

The Purvanchal Expressway originates in Lucknow and passes via eight eastern districts — Barabanki, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Mau, Amethi, and Ghazipur. Lucknow is connected to the National Capital Region (NCR) through the Yamuna and Agra-Lucknow expressways in the west. Last year, with the opening of the Purvanchal e-way, Uttar Pradesh now has expressway connectivity between its eastern border with Bihar and the western boundary with Delhi.

The Purvanchal e-way has been finished in 36 months. The construction of the expressway started in October 2018, with the completion deadline set for October 2021, according to the UPEIDA.

A 91-kilometre-long e-way named Gorakhpur Link Expressway is also under construction to connect the Purvanchal Expressway with the Gorakhpur district.

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