Group of 4 escape unhurt as SUV plunges 15-20 ft along Agra-Lucknow expressway

Lucknow: An SUV carrying four passengers plunged 15-20 feet deep after a service road caved in alongside the Agra-Lucknow expressway on Wednesday following heavy rains, prompting the Uttar Pradesh government to order a probe.

However, no one was injured in the incident, officials said.

According to an NDTV report, the group of four men were on a road trip when from Mumbai to Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh when the incident took place. 

They were using Google maps since they had not used the expressway earlier and ended up on the service road which was already caved in.  

"A third-party probe has been ordered into the caving-in of the side road of the expressway (16 km from Agra towards Lucknow) by RITES Limited. The construction of the damaged road will be done by the construction agency at its cost," Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) Chairman Avanish Awasthi said. 

The UP government asked railways consultancy firm RITES Limited to complete the probe within 15 days. 

The 302-km long expressway, which costs nearly Rs 15,000 crore, was completed in record time of 23 months. It was inaugurated in November, 2016, by the erstwhile Samajwadi Party (SP) government months ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. 

It is the country's longest access-controlled greenfield expressway on which the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters jets can land and take-off in case of a war-like emergency.

(With inputs from PTI)