Jalandhar administration's nod to acquire land for Delhi-Katra Expressway

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 24

Moving a step closer to the execution of the much-awaited Delhi-Katra Expressway, the district administration has issued a 3(D) notification to acquire 1,485 acre in Phillaur, Nakodar and Jalandhar-II subdivisions of the district.

Around 68-km stretch of the Delhi-Katra Expressway would be in Jalandhar, including 29 km in Phillaur and Jalandhar-II and 10.09 km in Nakodar, for which 1,485 acre land would be acquired. Out of the total 1,485 acre to be taken under possession, 435 acres fall in Phillaur, 237 in Nakodar and 813 acre fall in Jalandhar-II subdivisions.

Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said officials had initiated the task to decide compensation award for the acquired land so that a notification under 3(G) for award distribution could be issued at the earliest. He said the 3(G) notification was issued when the entire details of land to be acquired, such as area, name of landowners, etc were published after completing the survey.

The Deputy Commissioner said being an expressway, there would be a limited number of access points to it and Jalandhar would have only two access points, including one at Kang Sabu village, Nakodar, and the second from the Kartarpur area.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was likely to invite tenders for the project next month. The travelling time from Jalandhar to Katra would reduce to just 2.20 hours from the present five hours with this expressway, Thori said.

Manager, National Highways Authority of India, Prashant Kumar said the project in Jalandhar was expected to cost around Rs 1,870 crore, including the cost of land acquisition and civil works. The work on the stretch in Jalandhar was expected to start in February 2021 and would be completed in two years, Kumar added.