DC Jammu Dr Raghav Langer reviewed the land acquisition process in district Samba

KATRA: Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Dr Raghav Langer today reviewed the land acquisition process in district Samba for Delhi Katra Expressway project.
Pertinently, the Delhi-Katra expressway corridor will cover as many as 229 villages in four major districts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir including Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Reasi.
The Expressway, in the Union Territory, will be 130-Km in length with 4 packages namely package 14, 15, 16 and 17.
Package 14 with 44.6 KM length starts from Balsua (District Pathankot) to Gurha Baildaran (Hiranagar, District Kathua), while Package 15 of 35.15 KM length from Gurha Baildaran (Hiranagar, District Kathua) to Raya Morh (District Samba).
Similarly, Package 16 with 19 KM length starts from Raya Morh (District Samba) to Satwari up to Tawi 4th Bridge (District Jammu). It will connect with the starting point of the Jammu-Akhnoor 4-lanning project.
Likewise, Package 17 of 33 Km length starts from Kunjwani (District Jammu) to Katra (District Reasi).
Before touching Katra town in Reasi district, it will pass through 26 villages, and once completed, the national capital will be directly connected to the holy town, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already floated two separate tenders for works under the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway project on the hybrid annuity model (HAM).
The Authority has also invited bids for construction of a four-six-lane access-controlled expressway from a junction with Hiranagar road near Gurha Baildaran village to Junction with Jammu Ring Road (NH-244A) near Jakh village of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway in Jammu & Kashmir.
Project Director NHAI informed that the DPR for the project is under progress and work is targeted to commence in the current financial year. The bids have been invited for Pathankot to Jammu stretch. The tender documents for the remaining Brownfield stretch from Kunjwani to Domel upto Katra via existing NH-44 & NH-144 will also be finalized by mid of Oct 21. The work for Forest and other statutory clearances is also under progress.
It was informed that work will be started from December 2021 and is expected to be completed in December 2023.
The Div Com discussed in detail the status of land acquisition. It was informed that 93 percent land for main carriage and 74 percent for expressway has been acquired in district Samba.
It was further informed that the land has been identified for Wayside amenities, Toll plaza and interchange in district Samba.
The Div Com directed the Deputy Commissioner Samba to expedite the process of land acquisition for smooth execution of work on the prestigious project.
The NHAI officials apprised the Div Com about the alignment of the Expressway through presentation.
The Div Com also discussed in detail all the packages and asked the NHAI officials to establish contact with Airport authorities and Metro lite for resolving the alignment issues, if any due to Jammu metro light and Jammu Airport Expansion project.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Samba, Anuradha Gupta; Project Director NHAI, Assistant Commissioner Central, SDM Vijaypur, Deputy Manager NHAI, ACR Samba and other concerned officers.