Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways & Shipping Nitin Gadkari yesterday laid the foundation stones of 12 major National Highways projects worth Rs. 10596.19 crore at Ropar, Samrala and Jalandhar in the state. These road projects mainly include 4 laning of Jalandhar-Barnala, Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur, Ropar-Phagwara, Kharar-Kurali, Chandigarh-Kharar, Kharar-Ludhiana roads besides elevated road in Ludhiana city.
The projects would provide world class road connectivity to commuters between Doaba and Malwa along with adjoining Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in next 2 years. Chandigarh would also be connected with 4 lane roads with all major cities like Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.
The work on these projects would start in full swing as the deadline has been fixed to complete the projects in the coming two years. Punjab has the highest road densities amongst Indian states at 133 km per 100 sq. km with total 64,500 KMs road network in the state. Punjab is also amongst the well served states and has road availability above the national average of 240.10 km per 1 lakh population.
Gadkari also mentioned in this address that waterways will be encouraged to boost up the economy in the state of Punjab and throughout the country to reduce the costs of transportation of goods. He informed that 40 water-ports are being constructed and 111 rivers have been declared as National waterways in India.
