Tribune News Service

Haridwar, November 29

The much-awaited four-laning of the Delhi-Haridwar National Highway 58 will get completed by June 2016. Also, Rs 11,000 crore has been allocated to ensure smooth and easy accessibility to the revered shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri in the Garhwal Himalayas.

Union Minister for Civil Aviation and National Highways Nitin Gadkari made this announcement in Haridwar today.

Gadkari also announced Rs 25,000 crore to ensure road connectivity in the entire hill state. Though the four-laning work of the Delhi-Muzaffarnagar-Haridwar National Highway was expected to get completed before Ardh Kumbh to be held two months later, he said he had given stern directives to the National Highway Authority of India and the nodal agency to ensure the work is completed by June, 2016.

Gadkari said Rs 11,000 had been allocated for connecting Char Dham shrines for which the tender process had been initiated and the project was likely to be flagged off on January 26. This would also ensure that an alternative route is available during the monsoon when the main Char Dham routes get affected due to landslides.

He added that from the Swami Narayan temple, the natioanl highway-24 will also be broadened. The road would be extended till Haridwar via Dasna, Meerut and Muzzafarnagar. He hoped that the work on the project would get started by June 15 next year.

This would lessen the duration of travel between Delhi and Meerut to 45 minutes and between Meerut and Haridwar to 2 hours. Thus the Delhi to Haridwar journey would be covered in three and a half hours which at present takes 5 to 6 hours.

Gadkari said for the Mansarowar pilgrimage route, special machines for cutting mountains and rocks had been procured from foreign countries. These machines were in operation at present and 37 km of the stretch had been broadened. The route was likely to be opened by December end.