In a major development, the Ludhiana-Ropar highway has been finally revived with the possession of entire land acquired for the project, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has said.

The 37.7-km four to six-lane Greenfield highway was the third 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 Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora engaged the protesting farmers with all stakeholders and official machinery to manage the possession of the entire land to build the Rs 2,900-crore big ticket project.

The Ludhiana-Bathinda highway and Southern Ludhiana Bypass were the other two NHAI projects, besides several packages of the Katra expressway that have already got parcels of remaining acquired land to resume the construction work.

The development assumes significance as these were the three Greenfield national highway projects in the state, having length of 104 km with a total capital cost amounting to Rs 3,264 crore, that had been terminated/ withdrawn due to the non-availability of land as per conditions precedent on the part of the NHAI within stipulated timelines.