Katra: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari Tuesday stated that the completion of 4-laning project of Srinagar Jammu National Highway would reduce the distance between two capital cities to three-and-a-half hours.
The Union Minister also announced the sanctioning of 110-km long four-lane Amarnath Marg (road) to the holy cave shrine in Pahalgam, as desired by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, to be built at a cost of Rs 5300 Cr.
He stated that the attempts were underway to complete the 670 km-long Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Green Expressway, being constructed at a cost of Rs 40,000 Cr before the imposition of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the general elections next year.
Gadkari stated this in a presser at Katra while wrapping up his two-day visit to J&K during which he inspected a number of crucial development projects being implemented in the Union Territory.
He was joined by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha; the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Road Transport and Highways General (Dr) V K Singh; the Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh and senior NHAI officers.
Before arriving at the presser venue, Gadkari joined by all these dignitaries had paid obeisance at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine and Bhairon Baba Mandir besides inspecting InterModal Station Katra.
Giving details about 4-lane Yatra Marg project, he stated that the DPR for 73-km stretch from Khannabal to Chandanwari to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1800 Cr would be ready by 2023 to be followed by Chandanwari to Panjtarni and Baltal for 37 km stretch, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 3500 Cr.
He said that a 10.8 km long tunnel would also be constructed along Sheshnag to Panjtarni stretch.
The project once completed would reduce the distance from Srinagar to Amarnath cave shrine from three days to 8-9 hours.
After getting a first-hand account of its grey areas during his inspection (of NH) earlier in the day, he stated that the four-laning project of Srinagar-Jammu road (National Highway) was proving to be very challenging notwithstanding that it was designed following proper geological and geo-technical investigation to tackle the problem of landslides.
