This story is from June 30, 2015

Lucknow-Varanasi highway still a distant dream?

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has not succeeded to start the project of four-lane conversion of Varanasi-Lucknow highway (NH-56) on ground so far.
Lucknow-Varanasi highway still a distant dream?
VARANASI: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has not succeeded to start the project of four-lane conversion of Varanasi-Lucknow highway (NH-56) on ground so far.
NHAI project manager (Varanasi unit) Surya Prakash on Monday, however, disclosed that the project was in the process of bidding and soon the contract of construction work would be assigned to any company.
They do not have any idea when the construction work will begin. This means that the highway will take couple of years more to be open for the public. Reason: Even after completion of bidding process the agency concerned will seek a period of over two years to complete this project.
The Union government had approved the project of converting the existing Varanasi-Sultanpur (part of NH-56) into four-lane high speed highway before 2012. If the project implementation unit, Varanasi of NHAI officials are to be believed the process of bidding to allot the work was also conducted in 2012 to ensure that the project could be started by January 2013. However, the process failed to yield any result and the project continued to linger.
After going through the details of this project it can be found that with its completion not only driving on this highway will become safe but the average speed of vehicles would also increase. At present journey between Varanasi and Lucknow is a bumpy ride. It is not only time taking due to overloaded two-lane road but a large number of railway crossings, crowded markets of townships situated along the existing highway. Keeping the same ground realities in view, the NHAI has initiated measures like bypasses, railway over bridges (ROB), vehicle underpass (VUP), pedestrian underpass and service roads for slow moving vehicles near populated areas.
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