Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to dedicate the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway to the nation on Friday, a project expected to cut travel time between Delhi and Katra from roughly 14 hours to about six, and between Delhi and Amritsar from eight hours to four.
During a visit to Jind, Haryana, Modi will formally hand over Packages 1 to 5 of the 157.92-km, four-lane greenfield expressway, built at a cost of approximately 9,680 crore. He will later inaugurate the 30.9-km Package 6 in Jalandhar, Punjab.
The full corridor, spanning 667 km, is designed to ease congestion on NH-44 (GT Road), support pilgrim traffic to Vaishno Devi, and spur industrial and logistics growth along the route.
Hydrogen Train Debut
The visit will also mark a milestone for Indian Railways: Modi will flag off the country’s first hydrogen-powered train, running between Jind and Sonipat.
Built with indigenous technology, the 10-coach, 3,200 HP train runs on hydrogen fuel cells that emit only water vapor, making it a zero-carbon alternative. The launch places India among a small group of nations operating hydrogen trains.
Haryana Projects
At Eklavya Stadium in Jind, Modi will lay the foundation for and dedicate development projects worth around 14,700 crore, alongside highway projects worth more than 12,470 crore across the state.
Key among these are the 33.81-km Ambala-Kala Amb Highway, linking Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and the 40.60-km Jind-Gohana Greenfield Highway, which will shrink travel time between the two towns from two hours to 40 minutes.
He will also break ground on the Hansi-Barwala highway project and dedicate an elevated rail track in Kurukshetra to reduce road congestion.
Other dedications in Haryana include two medical colleges in Bhiwani and Narnaul and the foundation stone for a Sikh Museum in Kurukshetra that will use modern technology to present the history of the Sikh Gurus.
Chandigarh and Jalandhar
In Chandigarh, Modi will inaugurate and lay foundations for projects worth over 4,700 crore in healthcare, education, and roads including new centres at PGIMER, a critical care block under the Ayushman Bharat health infrastructure scheme, upgrades at Punjab Engineering College and a government college, and a new greenfield highway connecting IT City to Kurali.
In Jalandhar, projects worth over 5,470 crore await inauguration, including 75 redeveloped railway stations nationwide under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (at a cost of about 1,570 crore), a new rail line between Daulatpur Chowk and Kartoli, two new train services, the final stretch of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, and the foundation stone for a bypass intended to improve connectivity between Ludhiana and Bathinda.