Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday inaugurated the six-lane Hindon Elevated Road connecting Ghaziabad to New Delhi, which is being dubbed as the “longest of its kind” in India.
The news of this inauguration was also tweeted by the official twitter account of Yogi Adityanath, who opened the road near the Karhera Bridge:
https://twitter.com/myogiadityanath/status/979667182706675712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The 10.3 KM long road is expected to drastically reduce a 60 minute journey between Raj Nagar Extension in Ghaziabad to UP Gate to about 18 minutes. This flyover would also connect motorists to the Hindon airbase and Delhi-Meerut Expressway, thereby making the drive to Delhi’s Akshardham signal free.
The flyover stretch built with the help of 228 single-pier pillars, cost an estimated Rs 1,147 crores.
As per District magistrate and Vice Chairperson of Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) Ritu Maheswar, the road is designed to allow commuters to drive at an average speed of 80 Kilometres per hour.
In the initial days, only two and four wheeler vehicles would be allowed to ply on the flyover and it is estimated about 4,000 vehicles use the flyover per hour.
This inauguration though has resulted in a political slugfest with SP leader and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav claiming that Yogi is taking credit for the project conceptualised during his regime:
https://twitter.com/yadavakhilesh/status/979604948617867264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This political tussle has also seen a Samajwadi Party MLC Rakesh Yadav ‘inaugurating’ the project on 16th March after claiming that the construction was started during the SP rule. An FIR was later filed against him and his supporters.
The project initially was scheduled to be completed back in April 2017 but was delayed due to factors like shifting high powered transmission wires, a delay in the construction of a railway over bridge, and a lack of environmental clearance which was only obtained this February.
Some might say that, had the SP government managed to ensure there was no delay in the project, it could have then been completed during the Akhilesh government’s tenure or at the start of Yogi’s regime, thereby giving more political ammo to Akhilesh.