Lucknow, Nov 16 (IANS): Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh will wake up to a new dawn on Tuesday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the 341-kilometre long Purvanchal Expressway, connecting Lucknow with Ghazipur.

This will be the longest operational expressway of India, overtaking Agra-Lucknow Expressway, which is 302-km long.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to arrive in a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft that will land on the 3.2-kilometre-long airstrip constructed on the Kurebhar stretch of the Access Controlled Greenfield expressway in Sultanpur at 1.30 p.m.

He will dedicate the project to the people almost three years after laying its foundation on July 14, 2018, in Azamgarh.

The Purvanchal Expressway project was launched to spur development in the remote east Uttar Pradesh region that has lagged in infrastructure and industrialisation.

The expressway is bound to give BJP an advantage over its political rivals in the region that also comprises the Prime Minister's parliamentary constituency of Varanasi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's constituency, Gorakhpur.

Starting from village Chand Sarai on Lucknow-Sultanpur Road (NH-731) in Lucknow, the expressway passes through nine districts - Lucknow, Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur - before ending at village Haidariya on National Highway No. 19 in Ghazipur, just 18 kilometres from UP-Bihar border.

The expressway is 6-lane wide which can be expanded to 8-lane in future.

It has been constructed at an estimated cost of about Rs 22,500 crore.

"The expressway has been the dream project of the state government and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The project was completed in record time despite severe restrictions caused by the Covid pandemic," said Uttar Pradesh Expressway and Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) CEO Avanish Awasthi.