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Delhi-Katra e-way to be completed in phases till March 2028, Gadkari tells Rajya Sabha
The Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway will be completed in phases by March 2028 due to delays, with some contracts being re-tendered.
New Delhi: The 667-km Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway will now be completed in phases up to March 2028, with several stretches witnessing delays and some contracts being foreclosed and re-tendered, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The expressway linking Delhi with Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir is expected to reduce the Delhi–Amritsar distance by about 40 km, cutting travel time to Amritsar to around five hours and to Katra to about seven hours.
Gadkari said contracts for four stretches covering a total of 147.66 km have been foreclosed and fresh bids invited to complete the work. These include section VIII (35.09 km), section X (39.5 km), section XI (43.02 km) and Amritsar spur section II (30.05 km). The stretches are being taken up again through a fresh bidding process.
The longest delay is expected on Amritsar spur section I (16.9 km), earlier scheduled for completion by April 2026 but now likely to be finished only by March 2028, the minister said.
Another major delay is on Amritsar spur section III (28.07 km), where the completion timeline has shifted from October 2024 to February 2027. Among the mainline stretches, section XV (35.15 km) will now be completed by October 2026 instead of September 2024.
Five stretches of the corridor have already been completed. These include sections I (34 km), II (26.8 km), III (30.6 km) and IV (28.85 km) in Haryana, completed between December 2023 and January 2024, and section VI (30.91 km) in Punjab, which had an earlier completion target of May 2024.
Several other sections are under construction with revised timelines. Section V (37.67 km) and section VII (36.94 km) are now expected by March 2026, while section IX (43.04 km) is likely to be completed by June 2026.
Sections XIV (44.6 km) and XVI (20.39 km), earlier scheduled for September 2024, are now expected by June 2026. Section XVII (28.92 km) is likely to be completed by September 2026, section XVIII (15.3 km) by August 2026, and section XII (35.28 km) by February 2027, Gadkari said.
