Badal, during his meeting with the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, urged him to immediately declare the balance 1786.12 km of Guru Gobind Marg, linking Sri Anandpur Sahib-Talwandi Sabo-Nanded, as National Highway (NH) besides undertaking four-laning of the remainder 1775 km of this route on the priority.
Apprising Gadkari about the significance of the route, Badal said that the State Government had already finalised entire route of Guru Gobind Singh Marg after intense discussions and consultations with the eminent historians and Sikh scholars and subsequently a high-level team of officers traveled on the agreed routes in 2007 and then 2014.
“On the national map, the road stretches from Sri Anandpur Sahib to Takhat Sri Dam Dama Sahib (Talwandi Sabo) in Punjab and then to Takhat Sri Hazur Sahib (Nanded) in Maharashtra having a total length of 3080 kms. Of which, a portion of 605 kms of this route falls in Punjab, 1123 kms in Rajasthan, 164 kms in Haryana, 630 kms in Madhya Pradesh, 363 kms in Maharashtra, 18 kms in Delhi and 177 kms in Uttar Pardesh,” said Badal.
He said: “1294.35 kms of this route has already been declared as national highway and thus remaining portion of 1786.12 kms should also be declared as National Highway. likewise, 1305 kms of this route was already four-laned and the balance portion of 1775 kms of the road is required to be four-laned.”
Concluding the discussions, Gadkari assured Badal that he would soon convene a joint meeting of the officers from his Ministry and other concerned states for a presentation on the alignment of this route traversing across these seven states. Gadkari told the Chief Minister that soon after the finalization of alignment, he would get the work started on the said route.