Tewari meets Gadkari, reiterates demand for completion of Banga-Anandpur Sahib Road

Chandigarh, February 9, 2023: Sri Anandpur Sahib MP and Senior National Spokesperson of the Indian National Congress Manish Tewari met the Union Road Transport and Hihgways Minister Nitin Gakari twice in his Parliament House Chambers both yesterday and today. He both apprised him verbally and also personally handed over yet another letter with regard to the completion of the Banga-Anandpur Sahib Road in Punjab as a National Highways project.

Tewari reminded Gadkari that he had accorded in-principle approval to upgrade the Banga-Sri Anandpur Sahib Road to a National Highway. “In February 2019, you laid the foundation stone of this project which was supposed to cost Rs. 581 crores”, he pointed out, but regretted, “unfortunately,  since 2019, the project has been hanging fire and there has been absolutely no progress in bringing it to any fruition”. 

Tewari told the minister, “the Banga-Sri Anandpur Sahib road connects two of the holiest places in the Sikh Religion—Sri Harminder Sahib and Sri Anandpur Sahib. There are a lot of foreign tourists and even domestic tourists who regularly visit both these shrines and then go on to visit the Naina Devi, which is situated in Himachal Pradesh”.  

“I would be grateful if this road is adopted as a National Highway under the Bharat Mala Tour Scheme or under any other relevant scheme/policy of the Central Government and this project is taken up on an urgent basis and brought to fruition”, he urged Gadkari. 

“It would not be remiss to point out that this particular road has a very special place in the entire historiography and culture of Punjab. Therefore, it is imperative that this road must be taken up as a national highway and completed at the earliest”, Tewari added.