1,600-km NHs in Punjab to be four-laned: Sukhbir

Punjab is all set to become the first state in the country to have all its major cities linked with 4/6-laned roads by the end of 2013, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has said.

Punjab is all set to become the first state in the country to have all its major cities linked with 4/6-laned roads by the end of 2013, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has said.

In a meeting with PWD minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon,Badal said on Thursday that the focus of the SAD-BJP government in its second term would be to make road infrastructure in the state best in the country with four-lane roads network to make the state epicentre of investment.

He claimed that Punjab would be the only state in the country that would have its 90% national highways four-laned by next year.

Sukhbir said that with the completion of all ongoing projects, 1,600 km out of total 1,703 km of national highways would be four-laned by December 2013.

Nod to four-laning of 10 important roads at a cost of Rs 1,357 crore was given. The meeting was told that ambitious four-laning of Zirakpur-Patiala (Rs 501 crore) and Patiala-Bathinda (Rs 2007 crore) routes was awaiting nod from cabinet committee of infrastructure projects.

Six laning of Shambhu-Jalandhar road would be completed by June this year while Amritsar-Sri Ganganagar and Jalandhar-Jind road alignments had been already approved.