Curated By: Business Desk
Last Updated: August 30, 2023, 11:12 IST
The budget for the expressway’s construction is Rs 40,000 crore.
The distance between Delhi and Katra (Jammu) will be cut down from 727 km to 588 km.
Travelling from Delhi to Jammu will be easier and hassle-free soon. The government has stepped up efforts to complete the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway at the earliest. The construction of the expressway, which passes through Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir, is in full swing. In a bid to make travelling more convenient, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is leaving no stone unturned to open the expressway for people reportedly by May 2024.
The high-speed expressway, once completed, will allow people to save travel time. It’s because the distance between Delhi and Katra (Jammu) will be cut down from 727 km to 588 km. This will take only 6 hours to reach Katra from Delhi. Earlier, people used to drive for 12 hours straight to reach Maa Vaishno Devi Temple (Jammu). It needs to be noted that the Rs 40,000-crore Expressway will also make it convenient for those travelling from Delhi to Amritsar, as it will cut the time required to reach the city from 8 hours to only 4 hours.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a media interaction a few months back, ensured that the 670-kilometre Greenfield expressway will be finished prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Gadkari said, “May mein chunav hein. Chunav ke baad… humein kya fayda hai. Humein to Russia udghatan karna hai (Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for May 2024. Inauguration after that is of no use to us. We have to inaugurate it). Saaf baat karne mein mujhe koi sankoch nahin hota (I never feel hesitant in speaking the truth).”
As per the reports, the route of the expressway will start from Delhi’s Bahadurgarh border. Its starting point will be Kundli Manesar Palwal (KMP) Expressway near Nilothi village in the Jhajjar district. The expressway will also connect Jind, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur to Delhi.
Further moving, the expressway will split into two near Nakodar (Jalandhar). While one part will make way for Amritsar, the other will directly connect to Katra (Jammu). It will also be connected to NH-44 ( Srinagar-Jammu National Highway), thereby allowing people to enjoy seamless connectivity to Srinagar.
