NEW DELHI: The country’s longest expressway from Lucknow to Ghazipur will be built a cost of nearly Rs 25,000 crore by the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. This will surpass the per-kilometre cost incurred by the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav government in building what is currently India’s longest six-lane expressway from Agra to Lucknow. During the Uttar Pradesh election campaign, the BJP had accused Yadav of spending an exorbitant amount on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway , calling it a “scam” and promising an inquiry into it.The 353 km Poorvanchal Expressway from Lucknow to Ghazipur, a project previously proposed by Yadav, is being pegged atRs 24,627 crore ( Rs 70 crore per km), compared with the Rs 14,937 crore (Rs 50 crore per km) cost of the 302 km Agra-Lucknow Expressway.“Higher land acquisition costs are a factor for this,” said a top UP government official. “NearlyRs 2,900 crore was spent on acquiring land for the Agra-Lucknow Expressway but Rs 7,058 crore would need to be spent on land acquisition for the new expressway.UP has fertile land and with the government wishing to give farmers a good price, cost is high.”The state government said it will save some money by outsourcing “wayside amenities” to private parties through public private-participation (PPP) and asking telecom companies to lay optical fibre alongside the expressway for Wi-Fi services. “Or the e-way would have cost Rs 25,017 crore,” the official said.The government has not found any major irregularity in the quality of the Agra-Lucknow expressway. It took samples from all five sections of the expressway and “found them satisfactory,” the official said.“Bitumen crust of one package was required for detailed examination and has been sent to RITES,” he said.