Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh announced on Twitter that work has started on the Delhi-Katra Expressway. After the road is completed, travellers will be able to reach Katra from Delhi in only six-and-a-half hours.

The project is expected to be completed by 2023 with an estimated cost of over Rs35,000 crores.

The expressway will connect the holy cities of Amritsar and Katra and will offer connectivity for other prominent religious spots between the two locations. Katra is considered as the base camp for Vaishno Devi. A few cities through which this road will pass include Ludhiana, Kapurthala and Jalandhar in Punjab and Kathua and Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir.

It is expected that once the expressway is complete, people will prefer travelling to Delhi by road instead of via rail or air. It will take just 5 to 6 hours to travel to Delhi from Jammu.

Singh also said that the National Highway between Pathankot and Jammu is being widened from four lanes to six. This will be of great help in easing the traffic between Pathankot, Kathua and Jammu.

The Delhi-Katra Expressway will also be beneficial for the development of economic hubs in cities like Jammu and Kathua.