Exploring India’s North with the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway!

The Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway is one of ten motorways to be built as part of the ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’. This 670-kilometer-long motorway is a hybrid of Greenfield and Brownfield motorways that connects the states of Delhi, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, and Haryana. It is now a four-lane wide access-controlled motorway with the potential to develop to an eight-lane motorway in the future.

The road would facilitate religious tourism by connecting Delhi to Vaishno Devi in Katra and the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The highway will also link to sacred Sikh sites like as Dera Baba Nanak, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib, and Tarn Taran. 

Details about the Delhi-Katra Expressway project

• The venture began in 2016, with the comprehensive project report completed in 2019.
• The highway would connect Delhi’s Bahadurgarh border with Katra in Punjab through Nakodar and Gurdaspur.
• In Nakodar, a town in Punjab, the Greenfield highway splits in two.
• The first Greenfield segment would run via Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib, and TarnTarn before terminating near the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar.
• The second part includes both the Greenfield and Brownfield motorways. It skips Kathua and Jammu and goes straight to Katra.
• It is expected that about 14,000 acres of land from Punjab and 5,000 acres from Haryana would be bought.

Route chart of the Delhi-Katra Expressway

The 397-kilometer-long Delhi-Nakodar section’s construction will be broken into 12 packages. The final segment, which runs between Nakodar and Amritsar, would be broken into three packages. At Mullanpur Dakha-Kang Sahbu, this segment will connect with the Delhi-Nakodar section.

Time reduction on the Delhi-Katra Expressway

The current distance between Delhi and Katra is 730 kilometres. It will be decreased to 590 kilometres once the motorway is functional. Traveling will be simpler because to this motorway, which will cut travel time from 14 hours to six hours.

Furthermore, the distance between Delhi and Amritsar would be decreased to roughly 400 kilometres, and the journey time will be cut in half from the present eight hours. 

Nitin Gadkari (Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways) stated in September 2021 that the Delhi-Katra Expressway will be finished in two years, by 2023. The project is expected to cost Rs 47,000 crore, with a portion of the funds going towards land purchase and the remainder going towards building.

Update on the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway

According to media sources, the Punjab district government has completed more than 95 percent of the land purchase procedure. Land acquisition began in Jalandhar, Phillaur, and Nakodar. Compensation of around Rs 443 crore has been given to landowners. Several farmers, however, disputed the reimbursement and requested a fair payout.

Previously, Nitin Gadkari, Federal Minister for Roads, Transport, and National Highways, authorised a financial investment of Rs 2574.47 crore for construction on the Kunjwani to Sidhra stretch of National Highway-44, as well as the Domel to Katra segment. Jumping on the bandwagon, the NHAI requested bids for the development of a portion of NH-44 from Sidhra to Ban village as part of Phase 2 of the project, in order to accelerate and eliminate delays caused by protests.

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