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PNC Infratech’s Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway Cracks Aren’t New: Rs 10 Lakh Bribe Caught Before
A CBI chargesheet in a 2024 bribery case has added to PNC Infratech’s troubles, even as the Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway it built continues to develop cracks just month after opening.
PNC Infratech, the company behind the Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway, is facing trouble on two fronts. A CBI chargesheet filed in a special court has detailed a bribery case linked to a separate highway project, even as the ₹4,200-crore expressway itself continues to develop cracks barely a month after opening to traffic in July.
According to local reports, the chargesheet relates to a 2024 case involving the Jhansi-Khajuraho highway, in which CBI arrested an NHAI official and PNC Infratech employees for bribery. The document names 10 accused, including NHAI’s Chhatarpur-based general manager and project director Purushottam Lal Chaudhary and PNC Infratech‘s managing director Yogesh Jain.
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According to the CBI, Chaudhary was caught accepting a ₹10 lakh bribe from PNC Infratech employees in exchange for issuing project NOCs, approving work handovers, and clearing final bills.
Investigators say raids across Chhatarpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, and Gurugram turned up digital devices and documents linked to the alleged bribery before the chargesheet was filed.
What’s Separately Going Wrong On Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway?
The 63-km expressway, inaugurated on July 13, has reported repeated pavement failures during its first monsoon, prompting NHAI to suspend toll collection and begin proceedings to declare PNC Infratech a non-performing contractor.
Traffic has nearly doubled since tolling was suspended, complicating repair work on a corridor that’s still fully operational.
What Is The IIT-Kharagpur Team Investigating?
A team led by Professor KS Reddy is examining why the expressway’s “green field” stretch has sunk or cracked at multiple points, video-documenting the inspection and taking roughly 30 samples — including from four locations with the worst damage — for comparison against undamaged sections.
The team has also collected soil samples at varying depths and reviewed the expressway’s full design report to check whether PNC deviated from it. A report is expected within 10–12 days.
What Has The Probe Found So Far?
At one stretch near Korari in Unnao, engineers found the road surface sat higher than the drainage system, meaning rainwater had nowhere to go — a defect officials ordered fixed immediately.
Separately, on Saturday, fresh cracks about 400 metres from an already-repaired stretch (km 30.7) forced a new 1.5-km diversion near km 30.3, with engineers opting to reconstruct nearly a kilometre of carriageway rather than patch the surface.
It’s the latest in a string of failures, including a five-day, five-km diversion around km 64 after a bridge-linked stretch collapsed.
How Do The Two Threads Connect?
They involve the same company but different projects — the bribery case concerns the Jhansi-Khajuraho highway, while the cracking issues are on the Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway. Together, though, they’ve put PNC Infratech under scrutiny on both regulatory and criminal fronts at the same time.
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Case | Jhansi-Khajuraho highway bribery case, CBI, 2024 |
| Accused | 10, incl. NHAI GM/project director Purushottam Lal Chaudhary and PNC Infratech MD Yogesh Jain |
| Bribe amount | ₹10 lakh, allegedly for NOC, handover and bill clearances |
| Raid locations | Chhatarpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Gurugram |
| Expressway cost/length | ₹4,200 crore / 63 km |
| Opened | July 13 |
| NHAI action | Toll suspended; move to declare PNC non-performing contractor |
| IIT-Kharagpur report due | 10–12 days (as of inspection) |
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Original source: https://www.news18.com/
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