Rs 4,700-crore Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway caves in 12 days after inauguration; NHAI clarifies

Within two weeks of its inauguration, a section of the Rs 4,700-crore Lucknow-Kanpur Greenfield Elevated Expressway has caved in due to rain, raising concerns over the quality of the construction.

This is not the first instance of roads being damaged, as this year's monsoon has exposed the quality of roads. From potholed stretches on the Delhi-Dehradun or Delhi-Mumbai or Delhi-Gurugram expressways, several recently built or widened highways are found to be buckling under heavy rain.

The 63-km-long Lucknow-Kanpur Greenfield Elevated Expressway was inaugurated on July 13 by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

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The project aims to reduce travel time between Lucknow and Kanpur and ease traffic congestion.

Sharing a video of the expressway, Gadkari said on July 13 on his X (Formerly Twitter) account, “The Kanpur-Lucknow National Expressway (NE-6), a nearly 63 km long 6-lane access-controlled expressway, has been developed in 2 packages. This expressway, connecting to Lucknow Ring Road, Kanpur Ring Road, National Highway-27, and National Highway-31, will reduce the travel time between the two major cities of Kanpur and Lucknow from about 3 hours to just 40 minutes (sic).”

SP leader shares video of damaged road

A video showing a damaged portion of the expressway in Unnao's Korari area was first shared by Samajwadi Party leader Madhusudan Yadav. He claimed about five to seven metres of the road had caved in near Korari village on Saturday (July 25).

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“I was travelling on Lucknow-Kanpur elevated expressway and as I reached Korari, I saw how the road had cracked after rain,” Yadav said in the video while pointing to the cracks on the expressway.

Later, Samajwadi Party’s media cell reposted the video while questioning the quality of construction. Several social media users also raised concerns over the project's construction standards, execution and use of public funds, with some alleging corruption.

NHAI denies cave-in

Responding to the criticism after the viral video, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) clarified that only the upper surface of the road was affected, which was repaired within hours.

NHAI Project Director Nakul Prakash Verma told PTI that only the upper surface was affected over a stretch of about 40 metres, and "it cannot be termed as a road cave-in." He explained that a cave-in means the soil beneath settles and the entire road sinks.

"Here, there was only slippage in the upper wearing coat," Verma said, adding that repair work was completed before 5 pm on Sunday (July 26) and traffic was moving normally on the expressway.

Responding to questions over construction quality, Verma said such technical issues could occasionally arise on long stretches of asphalt roads.

"In such a long expressway, this type of technical issue may occur at some locations. It is sometimes seen on bituminous roads, whereas such situations are generally uncommon on concrete roads," he said.