Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stones of multiple development projects worth over ₹42,750 crore in Ferozpur, Punjab, on Wednesday, including two major road corridors, a new broad gauge railway line, a medical satellite centre and two medical colleges, according to a press statement.
Road projects
The road projects include the 669 kilometre long Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, to be developed at a cost of about ₹39,500 crore, which is set to halve the travel time from Delhi to Amritsar and Delhi to Katra.
“The greenfield expressway will connect key Sikh religious sites at Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib, Tarn Taran and the holy Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi in Katra. The expressway will also connect key economic centres like Ambala Chandigarh, Mohali, Sangrur, Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Kathua and Samba in Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir,” according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Tuesday.
The second project is the four-laning of Amritsar-Una section, to be done at a cost of around ₹1,700 crore. The 77 km long section is part of the larger Amritsar to Bhota corridor spanning Northern Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, connecting four major national highways — Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar Economic Corridor, Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway, North-South Corridor and Kangra-Hamirpur-Bilaspur-Shimla Corridor.
“It will help improve the connectivity of religious sites at Ghoman, Shri Hargobindpur and Pulpukta Town (home to the famous Gurudwara Pulpukta Sahib),” the release said.
Railway line
The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of a new broad gauge railway line between Mukerian and Talwara, around 27 km in length, to be built at a cost of over ₹410 crore.
“The project will prove especially beneficial for the people of Hoshiarpur in Punjab and Una in Himachal Pradesh. It will give a boost to tourism in the region, and provide ease of connectivity to hill stations as well as to places of religious importance,” the release said.
The foundation stone for the 100-bedded PGI Satellite Centre at Ferozepur, to be built at a cost of over ₹490 crore, will also be laid. It will provide services in ten specialties and provide medical facilities to Ferozepur and the nearby areas, the statement added.
The development projects also include two medical colleges at Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur, to be built at a cost of about ₹325 crore each, and with a capacity of about 100 seats.