Soon Drive From Delhi To Katra Vaishno Devi In Just 6 Hours, Four-Lane Expressway Construction To Start From December

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has floated the bids for the first 160 kilometres of the 634-kilometres-long greenfield four-lane expressway project being executed from Delhi to Katra via Amritsar in Punjab, reports Times of India.

The building of the entire stretch of the expressway will entail an investment to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore and the construction activity will start by December end as per Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.

The project is designed in such a manner that the expressway could be further expanded to six-lanes in future. At the moment, a four-lane expressway is being built considering the estimated traffic on the stretch. Also, the project would involve the building of two cable-stayed bridges of two lanes each on the Beas river in Punjab's Goindwal which is a declared dolphin sanctuary.

Once completed, the expressway will reduce the time taken to travel from Delhi to Katra dramatically, from almost 11 hours in the present day to about 6-6.5 hours. Also, the time taken to travel from Delhi to Amritsar will reduce to just 4-4.5 hours.

The expressway will be signal-free stretch with cars being allowed to travel over it as speeds of 120 kilometres per hour. The entire project is expected to be completed by October 2023.