The Uttar Pradesh government will raise Rs 2,900 crore from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for the proposed 628 km Ganga Expressway project, which is pegged at Rs 36,000 crore.

The loan amount will be utilised towards land acquisition for the project by nodal agency, the Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA).

The Ganga Expressway project will entail acquisition of 6,556 ha of land and traverse Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahar, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratagarh and Prayagraj districts.

The under-construction projects in the state include Purvanchal Expressway, Gorakhpur Link Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway.

Meanwhile, the UPEIDA Board also cleared the proposal of raising loans worth Rs 5,900 crore for Bundelkhand Expressway from a consortium of banks led by public sector lender Bank of Baroda and comprising Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Uco Bank.

Estimated to cost Rs 15,000 crore, Bundelkhand Expressway will link Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah districts.

The project will connect backward Bundelkhand region with the National Capital Region (NCR) via Agra-Lucknow and Yamuna expressways. The project will start near Bharatkoop at Jhansi-Allahabad National Highway (NH) 35 in Chitrakoot district and terminate near village Kudrail, Etawah on Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

Besides, UPEIDA will create a separate wing for the purpose of land acquisition, development of infrastructure and overall management of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor programme.

It will also sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Navy for promoting the defence manufacturing sector in the proposed corridor, which will have six nodes comprising Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Aligarh and Chitrakoot districts.

Meanwhile, 91 km Gorakhpur Link Expressway is being developed in two different packages. It will cut through Gorakhpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar and Azamgarh districts.