Chandigarh, June 16
The Public Works Department (PWD) is gearing up to initiate work on the four-laning of two important national highways allotted to it by the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways. These are Amritsar-Bathinda national highway via Verka-Tarn Taran-Mudki-Kotkapura-Baja Khanna-Jida and Jalandhar-Moga-Barnala-Khanuri (Sangrur).
"We have completed most of the paper work and the process is on to acquire land for widening the 175-km-long Amritsar-Bathinda highway, a project worth Rs 1900 crore. Documents have been submitted to seek mandatory clearances from the authorities concerned in the Centre. The project will have a bypass at Nehurashara Pannua, Zira, Harik, Talwandi and Kotkapura," said Ashok Singla, Chief Engineer, PWD.
He said: "We have set the timeline to allot the tenders in September. The work on the Jalandhar-Moga-Khanuri highway is expected to start by the end of this year".
"We have planned the widening of these highways in such a manner that these would actually become expressways. There will be flyovers, railway over-bridges (ROBs) and bypasses to overcome traffic bottlenecks," said Singla.
"The Jalandhar-Moga-Khanuri (Sangrur) highway will extend up to Jind in Haryana. However, the PWD will deal with the portion falling in Punjab. These projects will be toll based and constructed under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode".
Most of the highways are constructed under the supervision of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). However, in Punjab, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, has allocated three highways to the PWD.
As contractors have been facing problems in getting raw material for widening roads and other development works, the government is likely to issue short-term permits for mines, which they would have to identify themselves to extract sand, gravel etc.
"We have a policy to lease out mines, but the person(s) concerned has to pay the average auction price to take a mine on lease," said a senior official of the Industry Department. He said at present, there was a policy to give short-term permits to brick kilns.
Smooth Drive
- The process is on to acquire land for widening the 175-km-long Amritsar-Bathinda highway
- Documents have been submitted to seek mandatory clearances from the authorities concerned in the Centre
- The project will have a bypass at Nehurashara Pannua, Zira, Harike, Talwandi and Kotkapura
- The tenders are most likely to be floated in September
- There will be flyovers, railway over-bridges and bypasses to overcome traffic bottlenecks
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