As the Central Government on Tuesday gave its go-ahead to convert Punjab stretch of the 575-kilometre-long Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway to Greenfield project, Punjab’s all prominent political parties — Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) — engaged in the credit war patting their own backs for being the first one to raise theissue.

While Punjab Chief Minister’s office issued a lengthy press statement claiming that the Centre’s decision came in agreement with the State Government’s proposal, the leaders of the SAD and BJP also issued separate press statements to score brownie points over the issue.

SAD MP and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal also thanked the Centre for “acceding to her request to amend alignment of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway”, while BJP’s national secretary Tarun Chugh claimed that the issue was raised by the party’s Union MInister Hardeep Singh Puri along with Harsimrat recently, and earlier by him, Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, Congress’ Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujla, and Sikh organizations and other public representatives.

The Centre has agreed to convert the Punjab stretch of the controlled-access expressway into a Greenfield project by providing a direct spur from Nakodar, onward to the five historic towns of Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib and Tarn Taran, leading up to Amritsar.

The Chief Minister’s office maintained that the decision was conveyed by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh during a videoconference meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier, the Chief Minister had raised the issue with the Centre, after local citizens and their representatives expressed concern over the project’s failure to connect the religious and historical towns of Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Tarn Taran.

Also, the original proposal of the NHAI had entailed widening of existing GT road from Kartarpur to Amritsar as Brownfield project, which was proving expensive as it would involve major demolitions due to land acquisition.

“During the VC today, the Union Minister told the Chief Minister that, after detailed deliberations with the State Government officials and examination of all aspects of the proposal, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had approved the alignment of Phase-I of Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway with Delhi-Gurdaspur section (entering the State near Khanauri and passing near the towns of Khanauri, Patran, Bhawanigarh, Ludhiana, Nakodar, Jalandhar Kartarpur, Qadian and Gurdaspur) as a Greenfield project, along with development of existing NH-3 from Kartarpur (junction of proposed Expressway with Jalandhar-Amritsar road NH-3) to Amritsar bypass as a 6-lane Access Controlled Expressway, as a Brownfield project,” read the statement.

To speed up the process of land acquisition for the new Greenfield alignment, the Chief Minister has agreed to an early meeting between NHAI and State Government authorities, as suggested by Gadkari, said an official spokesperson.

The alignment, covering about 100 kms, will connect five religious towns established by five Sikh Gurus – Sultanpur Lodhi (Guru Nanak Dev), Goindwal Sahib (Guru Amardas), Khadoor Sahib (Guru Angad Dev), Tarn Taran (Guru Arjan Dev) and Amritsar (Guru Ramdas).

Meanwhile, Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal thanked Gadkari for acceding to “her request” to amend the alignment to create a new direct link between Amritsar and Delhi besides creating a Sikh circuit connecting five major Sikh shrines.

Terming the decision as a historic development for the residents of Amritsar as well as Sikhs worldwide, Harsimrat said that it had fulfilled a long standing demand of the residents of Amritsar and was also in tune with the original alignment proposed during SAD-BJP tenure.

She pointed that as per the alignment submitted by the Congress-led Punjab Government, the expressway was to divert 60 km ahead of Amritsar near Kartarpur and there was a provision for upgrading the existing NH-3 from Kartarpur to Amritsar.

Under the new alignment, “which she had proposed”, the expressway would now connect the five historic Sikh shrines at Sultanpur Lodhi, Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib, Tarn Taran and Sri Amritsar Sahib, and it would also be extended to Dera Baba Nanak to facilitate travel to Sri Kartarpur Sahib, she added.

Chugh said that to discuss and resolve issue of alignment to Amritsar, a videoconference meeting was held under Gadkari’s chairmanship which was attended by Capt Amarinder, Harsimrat Badal, Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State Dr Jitender Singh, Union Minister of State Gen VK Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujala, Tarun Chugh, and Punjab’s former Minister Anil Joshi, besides the officials.

Punjab’s senior BJP leader and former Minister Anil Joshi too claimed credit saying that he had also raised the matter with the Centre and Union Minister and held a press conference on May 7 at Amritsar to clear doubts regarding Amritsar being the part of the expressway.