The Ludhiana-Bathinda highway project is back on track with the possession of almost the entire land taken, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has said.

The NHAI had withdrawn the big ticket project for want of land last year.

The 75.54-km six-lane access controlled Greenfield Highway was the fifth major NHAI project, besides the Centre’s flagship Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway to be revived in the state after they were shelved/ terminated for want of requisite land.

It was made possible after the physical possession of 72.04-km of the total 75.54-km, which accounted for over 95 per cent of the total land required for both packages of the project, was handed over to the NHAI by the respective district administrations.

The development assumes significance as the NHAI had shelved/withdrawn various highway projects after the contractors had left following non-availability of land in the state. 

It was after Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari took note of the matter and threatened to withdraw/cancel the shelved projects from Punjab and allocate them to other needy states that the state government had swung into action.