As many as 319 persons have lost their lives in accidents on Yamuna Expressway since it was opened for traffic nearly three years ago with the highway on an average witnessing two mishaps every day.

According to an RTI reply, the expressway connecting Greater Noida with Agra witnessed 2,194 accidents between August, 2012 and April, 2015.

As many as 275 accidents took place in 2012, in 2013 the number went up to 896, while 2014 saw 771 accidents. In 2015, there have been 252 accidents from January 1 to April 30.

As many as 319 people lost their lives in accidents on the 165-km "showpiece" highway.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav opened the expressway, built at a cost of around Rs 12,000 crore, on August 9, 2012, soon after winning the Assembly elections.

In response to an RTI application filed by advocate A N Srivastava of Agra, the Yamuna Expressway Authority has given the figures.

According to Agra Development Foundation Secretary K C Jain, the figures are alarming when compared to other expressways like Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, Mumbai-Pune highway and Ahmedabad-Baroda highway. Even the national highway from Delhi to Agra has a better record, Jain added.

Jain said that the Allahabad High Court, while disposing a public interest petition to highlight the alarming rise in the number of accidents on the expressway, had directed that the matter be referred to the high level experts committee constituted by the state government.

"But so far there has been no action from any quarter," he claimed, adding Agra Development Foundation and other groups have planned demonstrations to highlight the problem.