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New Delhi : Union Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Minister Nitin Gadkari on June 2, 2020, announced the development of a new Greenfield connectivity to Amritsar City from Nakodar via Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib as part of Delhi-Amritsar Expressway.
He said the road from Amritsar to Gurdaspur would also be fully developed and made completely signal free. With this, traffic would have option to travel to Gurdaspur onwards from Nakodar, i.e. via Amritsar or via Kartarpur. The Minister said this greenfield alignment will not only provide shortest and alternate express connectivity to Amritsar city but also to other religious centres of Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib as well as the recently developed Dera Baba Nanak/Kartarpur Sahib International Corridor in Punjab, according to a PIB release.
Gadkari informed that with this expressway, travel time from Amritsar to Delhi International airport would reduce to about four hours from the present about eight hours. He said this would fulfil one of long standing demands of the people of Punjab. The first phase of expressway would involve investment of about Rs 25,000 crore.
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has taken up development of Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway under Bharatmala Pariyojana. The alignment of expressway was firmed up in January 2019 and process of land acquisition was initiated. Recently, the issue of alignment of Expressway to Amritsar was taken up by the Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and the Minister of State (I/C) Civil Aviation, Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri with Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari. The issue was also raised by Shwait Malik, MP (Rajya Sabha), Gurjit Singh Aujla, MP (Lok Sabha), Govt. of Punjab, Sikh organisations and other public representatives.
It may be pointed out that Govt. of J&K had initially proposed Delhi-Katra Expressway. However, Gadkari had envisaged that the proposed expressway would pass through Amritsar looking at religious importance of the city, where over four million tourists visit every year and hence conceived Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway under Bharatmala.
In order to discuss and resolve issue of alignment to Amritsar, a VC meeting was held under Chairmanship of Gadkari on June 2, 2020, which was attended by Punjab CM Captain Amrinder Singh, Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of State (I/C) Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, MoS (I/C) MoDoNER Dr Jitender Singh, MoS (RT&H) Gen V K Singh, Shwait Malik, MP (Rajya Sabha), Gurjeet Singh Aujala, MP (Lok Sabha), and Anil Joshi, Ex Cabinet Minister, Govt. of Punjab. Secretary MoRT&H, Chairman NHAI, and other senior officers were also present at the meeting.
It is reiterated that Amritsar city was always an integral part of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway. From beginning Expressway was proposed as combination of Greenfield and Brownfield alignment in two phases.
Gadkari also requested Govt. of Punjab to provide requisite support to NHAI to expedite Land acquisition for proposed expressway in the State of Punjab.