<span style="color: #222222;">Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari through a series of tweets, approved works on significant National Highways and Roads worth about 3,900 crore rupees in the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh and the neighbouring State of Punjab, including the construction of Akhnoor-Poonch road on National Highway 144-A. AIR correspondent reports that the new works will give a major boost to road infrastructure in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh besides the State of Punjab.<br />''<br />''The Highways Minister has approved a budget of 441 crore rupees for rehabilitation and up-gradation work to two-lane with a paved shoulder on Akhnoor-Poonch road. The work had been approved under Project Sampark (Border Roads Organization) under Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) Mode. The Union Minister has also approved construction work of a four to six-lane access-controlled Expressway from the junction with Pathankot-Gurdaspur road (National Highway-54) near Balsua to the intersection with Hiranagar road in Kathua district of Jammu near village Gurha Baildaran of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway.<br />''<br />''The project has been approved on Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) mode under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-II and this will have the cost of 3,044 crore rupees and will cover the State of Punjab and UT of J&K. In the UT of Ladakh, Mr Gadkari has approved construction work of three realignments including Drass, Kharboo, and Kargil between Pandrass-Pashkyum on Zojila-Kargil-Leh road (National Highway-I) with two-lane. The work has been approved under Project Vijayak on Engineering Procurement and Construction Mode and the work has been sanctioned at the cost of  426.14 crore rupees.<br />''<br />''Worth to mention, the three works approved at the cost of over 3,900 crore rupees would give a significant boost to developing highways and road infrastructure networks in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh and the neighbouring State of Punjab, especially Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, which will sharply reduce travel time and distance between New Delhi and Jammu.</span><br />