Lucknow–Sitapur NH tobe 6-laned; tender by Dec

Lucknow: Alignment of revamped Lucknow-Sitapur National Highway after widening has been finalised. Finalising a budget of about Rs 1,000 crore, the tender to widen the busy road between Lucknow and Sitapur to a six-lane-wide carriageway could be floated by Dec 31 this year.Witnessing an average movement of close to 55,000 passenger car vehicles on a daily basis, National Highway 30 (old NH 24) is a portion of the 1,984-km-long highway that links Uttarakhand to Andhra Pradesh.Lucknow-Sitapur route witnesses second-highest traffic flow in a day out of the five national highways that connect Lucknow to the neighbouring districts (Unnao, Sitapur, Ayodhya, Rae Bareli and Hardoi in that order).

The 60-km road stretch spanning from the outskirts of Lucknow to Sitapur city would be widened into a consistent six-lane-wide carriageway, providing a minimum right of way of 60 metres to the vehicle owners.Three major flyovers have been planned on the stretch to bypass the congested towns of Siddhauli, Khairabad and Sitapur city, while 15 more underpasses are going to be provided to facilitate movement of motor vehicles between intermediate towns and crossings.

Officials said on the lines of Lucknow-Sultanpur National Highway, no major traffic crossing where highway-bound motor vehicles would merge into city traffic would exist on the Lucknow - Sitapur route as well.As National Highways Authority has already prepared a proposal to hand over the stretches of national highways that fall within the city limits to Public Works Department of the state, the length of the widened corridor mentioned in the alignment has come down from 66 km to about 60 km.Project director of NHAI’s Lucknow project implementation unit Nakul Verma said that the detailed project report is being examined to prepare further documents that would be floated to invite bids from the construction agencies. “We are hopeful of roping in the construction agency which would take up the widening work by Dec 31,” he said.Another officer from the highways authority revealed that ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has been approached. “We are gradually going to hand over the maintenance and operations of five national highways in Lucknow city to UPPWD. City limits are going to be defined up to the area which falls within the Outer Ring Road. Onwards from the exit point of Outer Ring Road, NHAI would continue to maintain the highway stretches,” said the officer.