First Of Its Kind, Rs 35,000 Crore Delhi-Katra Express Road Corridor To Be Completed By 2023: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday (12 August) informed that work has started on the first-of-its-kind Katra (Jammu and Kashmir)-Delhi Express Road Corridor which will be ready by 2023.

When it becomes functional, the Minister said, the travel time from Katra to Delhi will get reduced to around six and half hours, and from Jammu to Delhi to just about six hours, according to an official statement.

Sharing the details, Singh stated that once this express road corridor becomes functional, people will prefer to travel to Delhi by road instead of undertaking journey by train or by Air.

"The hallmark of this road corridor is that it will connect the holy cities of Katra and Amritsar, and at the same time offer connectivity for some other major important religious shrines between the two destinations," he said.

Singh further informed that after completion of the survey by Feedback Consultants Ltd, the process of acquisition of land is nearly complete and the work on the ground has started.

Estimated to cost over Rs 35,000 crore, the Minister said, the important cities through which this expressway corridor will pass include Jammu and Kathua in J&K, and Jalandhar, Amritsar, Kapurthala and Ludhiana in Punjab.

It should be noted that Katra lies in Rheasi district of J&K's Jammu division. It is situated in the foothills of the Trikuta mountains, where the temple of Mata Vaishno Devi is located.