Lucknow: The over 290-km-long four-lane controlled access Bundelkhand Expressway linking the backward region in the state to the national capital, will start in October, the Uttar Pradesh government said on Tuesday.

The expressway will have connectivity to the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and the Agra-Noida Expressway.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of the state Cabinet chaired by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, additional chief secretary (Information) and UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority CEO Awanish Awasthi said the project will be completed in 30 months.

He said 90% of the land needed for the project has been acquired and acquisition of the remaining 10% would be completed in two months.

"The land of farmers have been acquired at four times the existing rate," he added.

The expressway will start from Jhansi and will pass through the state's most backward districts like Chitrakoot, also a religious and tourist spot, Banda, Hamirpur, Auraiya and Jalaun. From Jalaun, it will lead to Etawah and reach Naseempur via Bateshwar in Agra before joining the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

The expressway will reduce the travel time between New Delhi and Chitrakoot to six hours, once the expressway is thrown open to the public.

The Cabinet also gave its approval to 18 other proposals, which included payment of salary to doctors and staff of Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, as per the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.

The staff and teachers of Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences too will get salary as per the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

Similar scale will be given to doctors and paramedical staff at King George's Medical University, Lucknow.

The meeting approved framing of Juvenile Justice Rules for care and protection of juveniles. Under the new guidelines, all organisations working for the welfare of children need to be registered and any body found functioning without registration is likely to face action, an official release said.

While categorising the crimes against children under the guidelines, accountability of officials has been fixed at every level and the district magistrates will have to submit review reports every three months.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal to exempt stamp and registration fees for 589.35 acres of land of Kushinagar International Airport that has to be handed over to the Airport Authority of India.

As many as 718 posts of the total 1,749 vacancies at the autonomous medical colleges will be filled on contractual basis now, the release said.

The Cabinet approved shuffling of doctors and paramedical staff in case of merger of Lohia Sanyukta Chikitsalay and Lohia Institute, it added.