Punjab minister urges Gadkari to expedite national highway projects in state

Punjab PWD Minister Harbhajan Singh on Thursday met Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and urged him to expedite approval of new national highway projects in the state.The Punjab cabinet minister made an impassioned appeal for declaration of nine major roads as national highways including Banga-Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi road, Nawanshahr-Rahon-Macchiwara-Samrala road, and Gurdaspur-Mukerian-Talwara road.

Punjab PWD Minister Harbhajan Singh on Thursday met Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and urged him to expedite approval of new national highway projects in the state.

The Punjab cabinet minister made an impassioned appeal for declaration of nine major roads as national highways including Banga-Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi road, Nawanshahr-Rahon-Macchiwara-Samrala road, and Gurdaspur-Mukerian-Talwara road. He urged the union minister to construct service roads along the newly proposed expressways in Punjab considering problems faced by villagers and farmers.

The minister also requested Gadkari to increase the annual accrual of central road and infrastructure fund to Rs 300 crore. The state government is going to submit its annual action plan for 2022-23 for approval to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways comprising projects worth Rs 3,300 crore.

These Projects include bypasses to towns like Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Sri Muktsar Sahib; four-laning of congested roads in the State; and new railway over bridges and high-level bridges.