Lucknow, Apr 22 (IANS): The Yogi government has started taking steps towards restarting the construction work, which were disrupted due to the nationwide lockdown to check the coronavirus spread. The government is preparing to begin the stalled construction of the expressways amid all the COVID-19 precautions.

Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority Chief Executive Officer Avnish Kumar Awasthi said that except for the city of Lucknow, offices of the contractor, project implementation unit(PIU) have been opened.

The total number of labourers engaged in the construction of the Purvanchal Expressway is 10,000 on an average, out of which currently 4,835 labourers are present in eight packages.

Awasthi said that all the contractors have been instructed to ensure the health check up of the labourers and social distancing between them. More than 42 per cent of the physical work was completed before the lockdown.

The offices of the contractor, PIU and authority engineer are also open in all the districts related to the Bundelkhand Expressway project. Out of the total 6,000 workers engaged in the construction of this project, 2,150 are present at the construction sites through which work is to be done.

Meanwhile, construction work has been started in the Gorakhpur Link Expressway Package-1 (Gorakhpur and Santakbirnagar). A total of 488 labourers are present on the spot for the construction of this expressway. Construction work has started in three out of six packages of the project.