Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday accepted SAD president Sukhbir Badal’s request to take up construction of Jalandhar-Ajmer Shareef expressway in the first phase of the national expressway project scheme.
Sukhbir, who called on the Union Minister along with his wife and the Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Badal, briefed Gadkari that there was an urgent need to expedite the project in view of difficulties being faced by trade and industry in Punjab in transporting goods to Mumbai and other ports.
He said that Jalandhar-Ajmer Shareef expressway, which is further linked to Mumbai, would reduce time travel to Mumbai by two days while bypassing Delhi besides fuel savings. Shifting the project to phase one of the expressway scheme would give a big boost to trade and industry in Punjab, he added.
Harsimrat urged Gadkari to change classification of combine harvester from category of “construction equipment vehicle and combine harvester” and reclassify it under the “agriculture equipment” head to avoid any ambiguity regarding registration fee being charged by district transport officers by treating combine harvesters as commercial vehicles.
Acting on her plea, Gadkari said that combine harvesters would be exempted from registration fee while assuring that due instructions would be passed in this regard soon.