Gadkari lays stone for 2.5-km elevated bridge in Phagwara
PHAGWARA/ANANDPURSAHIB:UNION water resources and transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday laid the foundation stone of 2.55-kms elevated bridge on the national highway in Phagwara.
The minister was accompanied by Union minister Vijay Sampla and Punjab public works department (PWD) minister Vijay Inder Singla.
Lauding the efforts of Sampla and Singla for taking initiatives for the project, the Union transport minister said that the project has been lying pending for past several years due to various reasons but it will be constructed soon.
He said that tenders have been called in and work will begin on this project from next month.
“Besides this project, Centre has allocated ₹ 60, 000 crore for construction of roads in Punjab and ₹ 40, 000 crores on irrigation project for four years. Till year 2014, the length of National Highways in Punjab was 1739 kms. This has increased to 3,778 kms in 2018,” minister claimed.
He assured that remaining construction work of roads and irrigation will be completed soon.
Meanwhile, PWD minister Singla thanked the Union minis- ter for laying the foundation stone for Phagwara project and urged him to take required steps to complete six other pending road projects in Punjab, including the PAP-RAMA Mandi bridge soon.he also requested him to take action against private company ‘SOMA’ for not completing PAP-RAMA Mandi bridge on time.
Earlier, interacting with the students of GNA University, Phagwara, Gadkari emphasised on research in the area of bio-fuel.
In another development, Gad- kari laid the foundation stone for upgradation of Banga Anandpur Sahib-naina Devi road at Anandpur Sahib on Monday.
Under the project, 67.64kms long and 10 metre wide road is to be built at a cost of ₹580.64 crore. Of the total length, 8.80kms stretch of the road will fall in Himachal Pradesh.
Addressing the gathering at Anandpur Sahib , Union transport minister said that Centre had approved road and water projects worth ₹1 lakh crore for Punjab, which includes ₹ 60,000 crore road and ₹ 40,0000 crore irrigation projects.
Taking a swipe at the previous governments, he said that the present government had done extensive work on construction of roads, tunnels and irrigation projects, which were not done in the last 50 years.he said the sixlane road from Delhi to Beas would be extended up to Amritsar.the Union transport minister said that the Centre was committed to solve irrigation problems of Punjab and had sanctioned many projects in this regard.
Speaking on the occasion, Anandpur Sahib Member of Parliament Prem Singh Chandumajra, thanking Gadkari for sanctioning the project, said that the road would help devotees visiting religious places like Anandpur Sahib in Punjab and Dera Baba Vadbhag Singh and Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh.
Punjab public works department(pwd) minister Vijay Inder Singla, Union minister Vijay Sampla, state Rajya Sabha MP and BJP president Shwait Malik, former Punjab minister Daljit Singh Cheema were also present on the occasion.later, Union transport minister also paid obeisance at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib.