LUCKNOW, Sept. 24 -- Lucknow Metro's long-awaited East-West Corridor project is now nearing execution, with construction of the 11.165-km corridor likely to begin in early October or during Navratri, as UPMRC works to finalise a date for the foundation stone ceremony with VVIPs. The Rs.5,801-crore project, jointly funded by the Centre and Uttar Pradesh, will connect Charbagh with Vasant Kunj through Old Lucknow, with 6.879 km of the corridor planned underground.

A senior Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) official said the corporation had initially been trying to coordinate the foundation-stone ceremony of the Lucknow corridor with the inauguration of a phase of the Kanpur and Agra Metro projects on the same day. However, the a...