Marred by delay, Lucknow to Sitapur Expressway opens for traffic

33 per cent of the carriageway still remains underdeveloped.

After a delay of over two years, the Lucknow-Sitapur Expressway on National Highway 24 (NH24) on Tuesday opened for traffic with about 33 per cent of the carriageway still to be completed.

While 50 km of continuous stretch has been unveiled, the remaining 26 km of the expressway is likely to be completed by the end of this financial year.

The Rs 450-crore National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) project was awarded to concessionaire SDC Limited in December 2005 on Built Operate Transfer (BOT) basis for completion by June 2009.

“The delay was primarily on account of land acquisition issues and environment clearances,” DSC director Anhad Narula said here adding the land acquisition was dealt with by NHAI directly.

The commuting time between Lucknow and Sitapur is likely to be cut drastically with the opening of the expressway.

NH24 was earlier predominantly a two-lane configuration. However, with economic development along the stretch and catchments, it had become quite congested. Therefore, NHAI had decided to upgrade it to a four-lane toll expressway with private partnership.

The concession period is 20 years and currently the company is charging reduced user fee for the partial stretch of 50 km until the full stretch is opened after completion.

NH24 is a prime transport corridor in Uttar Pradesh and handles a significant amount of road traffic daily, both commercial and private. It connects Lucknow with Delhi and important towns such as Sitapur, Bareilly, Moradabad and Ghaziabad en route.

The expressway connects with NH1, NH25, NH58, NH74 and NH87.

DSC runs similar projects in other states as well and the company claims now it would be handling 300,000 vehicles on a daily basis pan-India with the launch of Lucknow-Sitapur stretch.