Avtar Bhat
KATRA, Sept 28: There is good news for lakhs of Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims as the holy township of Katra will be connected with Delhi through Expressway Corridor soon.
This project will give Katra the distinction of being among those few destinations in India which will get connected through such an Expressway in the country.
This was announced by Minister of State in PMO with independent Charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh while talking to Excelsior at the sidelights of a function here today which was organized by Bhagwat Sewa Parivar, Ludhiana.
Dr Singh said that the Expressway Project covering a distance of 600 kilometers will be constructed at a whooping cost of Rs 15000 crores. The Delhi Amritsar -Katra Expressway which will be longest Expressway in the country, will be covering Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and J&K, he added.
The main objective of the Expressway will be to connect the two holy pilgrimage centers of Amritsar in Punjab and Katra in J&K.
He said the Union Minster of Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari took keen interest in finalizing this project and after its completion J&K will usher into an era of development.
The Union Minister announced that the work on the project will begin soon as all formalities have been completed for the same. One of the greatest and major advantages of this project will be that the travel time from Katra to Delhi which presently takes 11 to 12 hours will be reduced by five to six hours, he added.
Maintaining that development of holy township of Katra is a priority of Union Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself keen for the same.
He said “for us this holy place has such a great relevance that we started our campaigning from here”. “Both I and the local MLA, Ajay Nanda started our campaign from this place and after our victory we first came to pay our obeisance to Mata”, he added.
He said Mr Modi also started the campaigning for Lok Sabha elections from this sacred place and after the Narendra Modi Government was sworn in on May 26 last year he visited this holy place to inaugurate the train services from here. The PM attaches lot of importance for the development of Katra as a centre of religious tourism, he added.
“Modi Ji took such a keen interest in the development of this holy place that after Prime Minister’s chopper landed in Katra for the inauguration of Railway Station last year, the first thing observed by him was the potential of this place to be developed as an important solar station,” Dr Singh said.
The Union Minister said as the Science and Technology Minister last year he himself visited here to install latest weather forecasting Station at Sanji Chat. This was the second such weather forecasting Station in the country. First one was installed in Mumbai, Maharashta, he added.
He also highlighted various projects under taken by Union Government in the State which included inter-state connectivity Kandya-Gandyal bridge over river Ravi in Kathua, Biotechnology and Dreamland park in Kathua, digitalization of official records in Udhampur, etc.
He said recently Chennai -New Delhi Andaman Express train has been extended to Katra and this shows the Union Government’s total concern for the development of the area and testified the grand connectivity plans that the Government envisaged for this holy town. In coming times more DMU trains will be introduced between Katra and Jammu, he added.
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