Centre’s nod to alignment of Katra-Amritsar Delhi National Highway

The Centre on Friday gave its in- principle approval to the proposed alignment of Katra-Amritsar Delhi national highway via Jind-Barnala-Moga and Amritsar, a Punjab government statement claimed.

The decision was taken by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in a meeting here which was attended among others by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Punjab’s official spokesman said the project is estimated to cost Rs 70,000 crores and reduce the distance between Delhi and Amritsar by more than 100 kms.

With the completion of this project the distance between Delhi and Amritsar will be covered in less than three hours, a Punjab government statement claimed.

The Union minister while finalizing the alignment and other details also told the two leaders soon all the alignment and project details would be shared with both their sates so that work on acquisition could begin within a time span of two months.

Granting another gift to Punjab, Gadkari gave in- principle go ahead to Jalandhar-Ajmer Expressway and its proposed alignment via Jalandhar-Moga-Bathinda and Ajmer.

Hailing this expressway as a “very big boost” and a “game-changer” to the national as well as the Punjab s economy, Badal said it will cut Jammu-Kandla distance by more than 600 kms.

This Expressway would approximately cost Rs 80000 crores.

A Haryana government release later said Gadkari directed the officers of the Ministry to coordinate with officers of the states concerned for conducting survey and study of possibilities for these projects.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar informed that the state would have a total length of 250 kilometres of both expressways passing through it.

The construction of the proposed Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway would not only reduce the distance between Delhi and Katra from 727 km to 572 km, but would also serve as a new corridor of development in Haryana, he said.

He said work on Kundli-Manesar stretch of Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway had also begun. Discussion was also held regarding the Delhi-Jaipur via Pataudi-Rewari new expressway.