NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh is readying to expand its network of highways by another 500 km by 2021 to nearly 1,432 km, the longest in the country, following the decision of the Yogi Adityanath government to finalise the alignment of three new expressways to Bundelkhand, Gorakhpur and Allahabad.The new expressways, according to details given in a state government document seen by ET, will help form a web of fast roads across the country’s most populous state where road connectivity has been a bane, especially in the central and eastern regions.Western UP already has a 165-km long expressway from Noida to Agra and a 302-km long expressway from Agra to Lucknow. Construction of Purvanchal Expressway from Lucknow to Ghazipur, the country’s longest expressway at 341 km, will begin next month.UP has now finalised alignments of a 293-km long Bundelkhand Expressway from Jhansi to Etawah, a 150-km long Prayag Expressway from Lucknow to Allahabad and an 89-km long Gorakhpur Link Expressway from Azamgarh to Adityanath’s hometown of Gorakhpur. A 96-km long Delhi-Meerut expressway is under construction too, which means UP may have a network of almost 1,432 km of expressways by 2021.The Bundelkhand Expressway will be a four-lane project starting from Jhansi and ending at Etawah, where it will join the existing Agra-Lucknow expressway which passes through Etawah. The Bundelkhand project will be the first expressway passing through UP’s most impoverished districts of Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur, Jalaun and Auriya.The Prayag Expressway and the Gorakhpur Link Expressway, both four-lane projects as well, will branch out of the upcoming Purvanchal Expressway, creating a web of roads in eastern UP in districts such as Azamgarh, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Pratapgarh, Amethi, Rae Bareli and Barabanki.“These expressways will provide direct high-speed connectivity of eastern and central UP with the entire state as well as NCR (national capital region) of Delhi, Bihar and West Bengal. They will reduce travel time considerably and bring savings in fuel and total transportation cost,” the state government said in the document.