Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated two key expressways today, one to cut down on travel time from Meerut to Delhi, the other to help reduce pollution in the national capital. But his address at Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, next door to Kairana where assembly elections will be held tomorrow, touched upon what are seen as the key election issues. The Rs. 7,500-crore, 14-lane Delhi-Meerut Expressway will cut down the travel time between the two cities to 40 minutes from the current two-and-half-hours. The Rs.11,000-crore Eastern Peripheral Expressway, India's first smart and green highway, will help around 50,000 vehicles travelling up to Jammu and Kashmir, to skirt Delhi.
