Hardoi, April 29 -- As the stage is set for the inauguration of the 594-kilometre Ganga Expressway by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, Mallawan Nagar Palika, a hitherto sleepy town in Hardoi district where the ceremony will be held, has come alive for its tryst with development. Built at a cost of Rs.36,230 crore, the expressway, the longest in the country, will connect Meerut to Prayagraj, traversing 12 districts - Hapur, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Sambhal, Budaun, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj. The expressway will reduce the travel time between western and eastern Uttar Pradesh, benefitting rural regions that have long remained outside the development mainstream. The project marks the last big-ticket infrastructure initiative of the Yogi Adityanath government before Uttar Pradesh heads into assembly polls in early 2027 and its inauguration follows the opening of the Noida International Airport by the prime minister on March 28. Ahead of the inauguration, hundreds of workers, braving the scorching sun, have toiled to set up a massive marquee just close to the Ganga Expressway's cut in Mallawan, 98 km from Lucknow, for the PM's mega event. The land of 1100 farmers has been temporarily acquired for the programme and flattened with road rollers, removing all demarcations between adjoining farmlands. The Mallawan chauraha (crossing) has become the town's lifeline. Ajay Yadav runs a small shop and the only newspaper agency here. "We are hopeful that Mallawan will benefit once the Ganga Expressway becomes operational. Mostly, farmers will have access to a bigger market," Yadav says. He adds that traders will also benefit once the inflow of passengers increases. Rizwan Hussain, a local journalist, is more specific and says, "The benefits of the Ganga Expressway for the people of Mallawan and the rest of the Hardoi district will be available when the state government rolls out the State Capital Region (SCR) project." On the lines of the National Capital Region, the state government has approved SCR that will include six districts - Lucknow, Sitapur, Barabanki, Rae Bareli, Hardoi and Unnao. It will have an area of around 28,826 sq km and a population of nearly 2.3 crore. The SCR's main objective is to negate imbalanced growth and rapid population influx in Lucknow from adjoining districts. About 99 km of the Ganga Expressway passes through Hardoi district. Bilgram tehsil hosts the second cut of the Ganga Expressway in the district. "The Ganga Expressway and the SCR will together change Hardoi's fate," Hussain says. Locals credit deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak for the cut on the Ganga Expressway in Mallawan. Mallawan is Pathak's hometown. "The state government has paid four times the circle rate to farmers whose land was acquired for the Ganga Expressway," says Vijay Tripathi, a local farmer whose land is now a part of the Ganga Expressway. "But after acquiring the land for the project, the state government revised the circle rate. This revision should have been before the land was acquired for the Ganga Expressway," he adds. "Only a farmer whose land has been acquired for a government project can understand my pain. Now, when the expressway is ready for inauguration, the cost of farmland in Mallawan near the expressway has risen manifold, even from the revised circle rate," he says. Circle rates are the government-notified minimum prices at which properties can be registered during a transaction....