UP approves contracts for two highway projects in backward regions

Work on Bundelkhand Expressway, Gorakhpur Link will cost Rs 14,500 crore and create 60,000 new jobs.

Uttar Pradesh on Monday cleared the decks for two highways that will cost more than Rs 14,500 crore to build in Bundelkhand and Eastern UP regions, aiming to create 60,000 new jobs in the backward regions.

The 296-km long Bundelkhand Expressway and 91-km Gorakhpur Link Expressway will cost at least Rs 9,921 crore and Rs 4,587 crore The projects together are pegged to entail investment of Rs 14,508 crore.

A cabinet meeting, chaired by chief minister Yogi Adityanath here, approved engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts to financial bidders selected by a committee last month.

The highways will take 36