April 12, 2023: According to Tuesday’s announcement by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, the Delhi-Katra Expressway would be open to traffic by 2024, just in time for the Lok Sabha elections.

He has requested that the construction be completed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) during the months of February and March so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can inaugurate the expressway. A road network consisting of around 500 kilometers and costing 45,000 billion rupees has been finished in the Jammu and Kashmir area.

Nitin Gadkari has stated that he will “try that the NHAI completes this project before the enforcement of the model code of conduct for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and that we get it inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February-March.” Gadkari’s statement was made in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that the model code of conduct would be implemented in 2024.

The minister also announced a number of additional projects, including the expansion of a road that runs from Khanabal to Chandanwari and then from Chandanwari to Baltal through Panchtarni.

This route is 110 kilometers long. Between the Panchtarni and Amarnath shrines, a concrete pathway spanning five kilometers will be built. A road that extends all the way to Amarnath will cost 5,300 billion rupees to build.

The Ludhiana District’s Attempt to Start Construction on the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway Fails.

There has been a severe setback in the process of making the Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway completely operational in February of 2023. The traffic is particularly bad in the Ludhiana district, which is because the expressway cannot get going there.

The inaccessibility of suitable land is the root cause of the current holdup. The contract was signed in April of the previous year, but work on the building could not get underway then.

Only 58% of the land that needed to be acquired in the Ludhiana district has been purchased so far out of the entire amount of land that has to be purchased. The government could not complete the purchase of the remaining 42 percent of the land.

The head of the project at the NHAI said that the government has acquired custody of 22.7 kilometers. However, there is still a 16.25-kilometer-long piece of property that has not been purchased.

He also added that out of the whole eight packages in Punjab, work has already begun in locations such as Kapurthala, Malerkotla, Patiala, Jalandhar, and Sangrur. This was something else that he highlighted.

The combined length of these five individual packages is 193 kilometers. Around Rs 25,000 Crores is the entire amount that is projected to be spent on the Punjab segment of the project.

All You Need to Know About the Delhi-Katra Expressway

The Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway has its cornerstone officially placed on the 24th of April 2022 by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.

This expressway was built as part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana program, which is a forward-thinking initiative of the national government. The improvement of several highway portions in India is the goal of this initiative.

It is anticipated that the distance between Delhi and Amritsar would be covered in three and a half hours after the 670 kilometers long motorway is completed. Additionally, the distance between Delhi and Katra, which serves as the entrance to the Vaishno Devi Temple, would be cut down.

• Phase 1’s Estimated Cost: Rs 25,000 crore
• Project’s Total Length: 650 km (approx.)
• Main Expressway’s Length: 550 km (approx.)
• Greenfield Expressway (Delhi – Gurdaspur): 397.712 km
• Greenfield Spur (Nakodar – Amritsar): 99 km
• Lanes: 4 (expandable to 8)
• Right of Way (ROW): 90m
• Owner: National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)
• Status: Under Construction, Under Bidding, and Land Acquisition
• Completion Deadline: December 2025
• Project Model: Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM)

• Phase 2 will connect Gurdaspur – Pathankot – Jammu – Katra and will be a brownfield expansion of the existing NH-54 (old NH-15) and NH-44 (old NH-1) highway.

In addition, a Pathankot Link Road with a distance of 12.345 kilometers is now being constructed in order to connect Gobindsar Village, which is located on Package 14 of the Delhi–Katra Expressway (which is currently being constructed by MEIL), to Talwara Jattan Village, which is located on NH-44 in the Gurdaspur District. The NHAI has reported receiving six offers as of February 2023.

Delhi Amritsar Katra Design & Route Map

In 2019, Input Infrastructure completed the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and alignment studies for the Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway. The process of acquiring land for the project began the following year, in January 2020.

The beginning of Phase 1 will be at the Kheri Jasaur hamlet in the Jhajjar district, on the Kundli Manesar Palwal Expressway (KMP), while the finish will be on the Gurdaspur Bypass in the Gurdaspur district (Chainage 397+712).

Its greenfield Nakodar – Amritsar spur begins in the hamlet of Nakodar, which is located at the intersection of the Delhi – Katra Expressway and the NH 703 (former NH 71) (Expressway Km 306), and it terminates on the Amritsar-Ajnala Road NH 354, which is close to the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar.

Along its path, the expressway’s alignment would travel through the districts of Jhajjar, Rohtak, Sonipat, Jind, Karnal, and Kaithal in the state of Haryana, as well as the districts of Patiala, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, and Gurdaspur in the state of Punjab.

According to the EIA Report, here is how it traveled through Punjab:

When it is ready, a Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway route map in official PDF format will be added to this page.

The Current Stand of Construction and Contracts

The project is now being carried out in around twenty different civil bids or packages. The first phase, which is completely greenfield, is comprised of 15 different packages, each of which has a deadline of 24 months (2 years). Within that, the main Delhi–Gurdaspur Expressway is made up of a total of 12 packages, while the Nakodar–Amritsar spur is made up of a total of 3.

Please take into consideration that the scope of each may involve additional work for approaching roads.

Also, Read: Top 9 Upcoming Expressways in India

Phase 1 (Greenfield)

Phase 2 (Greenfield & Brownfield Upgrade)

Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway Timeline

Following is the timeline of Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway:-

Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway Contact Details

For any information, you can contact NHAI (National Highway Authority of India)

• Office address: National Highways Authority Of India

G 5&6, Sector-10, Dwarka, New Delhi-110 075

• Mobile number: 91-011-25074100, 25074200, 25093507, 25093514

Summing Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway

The National Highway Authority of India constructed a variety of expressways, including greenfield and brownfield expressways, as part of the Delhi Amritsar Katra Expressway. It is an expressway that is 670 kilometers long and has a width of four lanes, but if necessary, it may be enlarged to eight lanes. The cost of constructing the highway is estimated to be 35,000 billion rupees. Its total length is 670 kilometers, and it passes through three different states: Delhi, Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir. The Golden Temple and Vaishno Devi, two of the holiest sacred sites for both Hindus and Sikhs, will be linked by a new expressway route that would connect Delhi, Amritsar, and Katra. When the expressway is completed and operating by October 2023, travel time from Delhi to Amritsar would be reduced to four hours, while travel time to Katra will be reduced to six hours.