Union Minister for Road Transport and Infrastructure, Nitin Gadkari on Monday inaugurated Sagar Greenfield Link Road among other highway projects in a major infra boost to Madhya Pradesh, especially the backward area of Bundelkhand. The road corridor will cost around Rs. 11,300 crores.
The link road will connect Bhopal to Kanpur and it will reduce the distance between the two cities by about 21 kilometres and improve connectivity from Bhopal to Lucknow, Varanasi and Prayagraj. It will also help improve the logistics operations of the cement and mineral transportation between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
It will help reduce the travel time between the two cities from 15 to 7 hours. Moreover, construction of flyovers in Sagar City, Chhatarpur City and Gadhakota will solve the problem of traffic jam.
The Union Minister also laid the foundation stone of 18 national highway projects with a total length of 550 km to boost road connectivity in Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 6,800 crores.
The various projects that were inaugurated during the event include a greenfield bypass project for Orchcha costing about Rs. 520 crores, a 665-meter bridge spanning River Betwa at an estimated cost of 25 crores, and flyovers in Garhakota, Chhatarpur City, and Sagar.
The construction of the bridge over River Betwa, which was over 20 years in the making, was concluded at a cost of around 25 crores. According to Gadkari, the improved connectivity of Tikamgarh, Orchha, and Jhansi will be achieved through the construction of a two-lane paved shoulder bridge and footpath. He further mentioned that the union government is spending around Rs 70,000 crore to improve connectivity to holy places like Ayodhya, Chitrakoot and Orchcha which are related to Lord Sri Ram.
Moreover, the newly built highways will provide easy connectivity to various tourist destinations in the state, such as Orchha, Tikamgarh, Sanchi, Panna, Chitrakoot and Khajuraho. he said. During the program, Gadkari announced the construction of a four-lane greenfield road project, which will be costing about Rs. 2,000 crores, from Bamitha to Satna. This road will help boost the tourism industry in the state.
Gadkari also announced that a greenfield highway will be constructed between the Taj Mahal city of Agra and the city of Gwalior, via Uttar Pradesh’s Shamshabad and Dholpur in Rajasthan.