New Delhi, March 18
Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari on Thursday urged Minister of Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari to initiate work on the Banga-Garhshankar-Sri Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi project stating that “not even a stone has been laid” in past two years despite Gadkari himself giving an in-principle approval to upgrade it to a National Highway.
“It is the 400th birth anniversary of ninth guru, Guru Teg Bahadur. This is an important road with emotional and sentimental value for millions of devotees who travel from Harminder Sahib to Takht Kesgarh Sahib to pay obeisance,” Tewari said in a supplementary regarding the project for which Gadkari laid the foundation stone in 2019.
In response, Gadkari said the government has constructed the Kartarpur Corridor in record time and the New Delhi-Amritsar-Katra will also provide connectivity to important gurdwaras related to Guru Tegh Bahadur in Amritsar. Earlier this highway was not going passing through Amritsar, he said.
Tewari asked about the pending project as a supplementary to a question by his Amritsar colleague Gurjeet Aujla who wanted to know the present status of the Dhilwan-Attari, pointing to heavy traffic on national highway on the Amritsar-Pathankot section. On Aujla’s query Gadkari said a new expressway between New Delhi-Amritsar-Katra will reduce the traffic load.