Central Govt. Approves to Build an Alternate Route From Punjab-Himachal to Leh-Ladakh China Border

New Delhi : The central government will develop the Delhi-Leh-Ladakh border via Punjab-Himachal Pradesh as an alternative road between China and Tanatani. Approval has been given to construct 85 km six lane new Green Field Expressway between Ludhiana-Ropar. Which will go ahead and connect with the four-lane Ropar-Manali National Highway.

At the same time, the Leh-Manali road from the other side is being developed into a two-lane highway. It is targeted to be completed by December. The connectivity of Ludhiana-Ropar will be through the proposed Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway. In this way, Delhi-Leh distance from the government’s master plan will be reduced to 18 hours instead of 34 hours. It is worth mentioning that in the Punjab position, the alternative road route plan is being considered very important for the Western Command of the Indian Army from a strategic point of view.

NHAI Chairman S.S. Sandhu presented the Ludhiana-Ropar six-lane green field expressway scheme to Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari last week. A senior official said that the said expressway has been approved and orders for making DPR. Four thousand crore rupees are expected to be spent on this. This new expressway will be connected to Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway (670 km). The official said that the Ludhiana-Ropar Expressway will connect with the already built four-lane Ropar-Manali National Highway.

On the other hand, BRO is also working on speeding construction of Leh-Manali two-lane National Highway (474 km). It is targeted to complete this work by December this year. He said that it would take only 10 hours to reach Leh from Manali instead of 20 hours. Because the work of the Rohtang Tunnel has been completed. Manali from Delhi will take only 8 hours instead of 14-15 hours. In this way, the distance from Delhi to Leh can be completed in just 18 hours instead of 34 hours. Currently Leh can be reached by the Kashmir-Srinagar National Highway, but now an alternate route will be available.

The construction of the two-lane Leh-Manali National Highway being constructed in an inaccessible hill is quite complex. On the four-kilometer section of Nehru Khand-Palachan, a two-lane road is being built by making new alignments, except for the old route of steep hills.

– The completion of Rohtang Tunnel will reduce the distance of Leh Manali by four hours. The project has been created by BRO.

– The headquarters of the Indian Army’s Western Command in Chandigarh, Punjab. From this headquarters, the army looks after the operations of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from this, there are army and air force bases in Jalandhar, Ferozepur, Ambala, Amritsar, Bhuntida, Pathankot etc. Therefore, the alternative route to Leh-Ladakh becomes quite important.