varanasi if all goes well a lateevening drive from delhi three years from now could land you in kolkata for lunch the next daythe promise of such a flightlike cruise comes from the proposed varanasikolkata greenfield expressway that would make a delhikolkata trip possible in 17 hours it takes several hours more nowthe delhivaranasi journey has already become possible in a little over 10 hours via the purvanchal lucknowagra and yamuna expresswaysaccording to officials the rs 3000crore varanasikolkata expressway is expected to be ready by 2026 it will curtail the distance to 610km from 690km and halve travel time to 67 hoursthe alignment of the proposed expressway was finalised and approved at a meeting in september 2021 led by the union road transport and highways secretary to connect key cities through the highway and its spurs to save time and coststhe proposed expressway will pass through mohania rohtas sasaram aurangabad gaya chatra hazaribagh ranchi bokaro dhanbad ramgarh purulia bankura paschim medinipur hooghly and howrahdivisional commissioner kaushal raj sharma said initial demarcation of land for the expressway has been done in chandauli near varanasi but a detailed project report is awaited the chandauli dm has been asked to complete this at the earliestcurrently most traffic between varanasi and kolkata is through nh19 old nh2 part of the golden quadrilateral most of nh19 is sixlane with many fourlane stretchesaccording to nhai the accesscontrolled expressway from varanasi to kolkata will start from varanasi ring road in chandauli district and meet nh16 near uluberia in bengals howrah districtwatch ganga view cafe in varanasi royalstyle food with stunning view