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 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.
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.
