BJP, Samajwadi Party slugfest over road project

Lucknow: The political slugfest between the ruling BJP and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh took a new turn on Friday when UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated the longest elevated road in the country in Ghaziabad and SP president Akhilesh Yadav came up with a tweet laced with sarcasm.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, “Ram Ram japna, paraya kaam apna”. The Samajwadi Party president apparently insinuated that Yogi Adityanath was claiming the credit for a project that had been initiated in his tenure. This is not the first time that the Samajwadi Party had leveled this allegation.

The party had made similar statements when the chief minister inaugurated the Lucknow metro rail project.

Reacting to the development, BJP spokesman Manish Shukla said that the Samajwadi Party was getting increasingly desperate, seeing the growing popularity of the BJP in UP.

Noatbly, the elevated six-lane road is approximately 10 kilometres long and built on 227 single pillars. It connects UP Gate to Rajnagar Extension.

The construction of the longest elevated road began in November 2014. It took three years and four months to complete the 10 km six-lane road, built on 227 single pillars. Only two and four-wheeled vehicles would be allowed on this road during the initial days. This elevated road, built at a cost of about Rs 11,000 crores, will make it easier to commute between Delhi and Ghaziabad.

Apart from this, it will also be easy for commuters to reach National Highway (NH) 58 from NH 24. It is estimated that around 4,000 vehicles would ply on this elevated road every hour.