Rs 4,200-cr Lucknow-Kanpur expressway cracks days after opening

The newly inaugurated Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway, built at a cost of around Rs 4,200 crore, has developed cracks at multiple locations following the season's first spell of heavy rain, raising concerns over the quality of construction.

According to reports, a section of the expressway near Korari village in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district was damaged after heavy rainfall. Videos circulating on social media showed cracks on the carriageway and a portion of the road appearing to cave in.

The expressway was inaugurated on 13 July by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh and Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari.

On 25 July, Samajwadi Party leader Madhusudan Yadav shared a video from the site, claiming that a five-to-seven-metre stretch of the road had caved in near Korari village.

"I was travelling on the Lucknow-Kanpur elevated expressway and on reaching Korari, saw that the road had developed cracks after the rain," Yadav said in the video. He alleged that the poor condition of the newly built expressway reflected irregularities in the project's execution and warned that the damage could pose a safety risk to commuters.

Following the emergence of the video, authorities initiated repair work at the affected stretch. Officials have not yet publicly explained the cause of the damage.

The project was executed by PNC Infratech. According to the company's public disclosures, its founder, chairman and managing director is Pradeep Kumar Jain, while Naveen Kumar Jain, a former BJP mayor of Agra and brother of the founder, is among the company's promoters.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) rejected the claims, saying the damage was confined to the road's top wearing layer and did not affect the structure of the expressway.

NHAI project director Nakul Prakash Verma said the affected portion was limited to the upper wearing coat over a stretch of about 40 metres and was not a case of structural failure. "There was only slippage in the upper wearing coat," Verma told PTI, adding that repair work was completed before 5.00 pm on Sunday and traffic on the expressway resumed shortly thereafter.