The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will change the alignment of the proposed Pathankot-Mandi four-lane project to reduce the cost of land to be acquired for the project and avoid the cutting of hills. The skyrocketing price of land has forced the NHAI to review the land acquisition plans. However, the execution of the four-lane Pathankot-Mandi project will be taken up as per schedule.
As per the original plan, there was proposal to acquire land for 45-metre width of the highway under the project but because of difficult topography and sliding of hills it had become difficult to acquire this much of land. Therefore, it has now been planned to acquire land for 33-meter width highway in hilly areas while in planes the NHAI could acquire 45 meters of land depending upon its availability.
