By IANS
Chandigarh : The central government has given the nod for a nearly 2,500-km-long inter-state highway that will link important Sikh religious shrines in seven states in the country.
Approval for the ‘Guru Gobind Singh Marg’ was accorded in New Delhi Friday during a meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and central Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni, a Punjab government spokesperson said here.
The road project has been okayed as “a key artery of national bonding and a spiritual lifeline to promote national integration”, he said.
The road will start from the Sikh holy city of Anandpur Sahib, where the Keshgarh Sahib gurudwara – the birth place of Khalsa sect in 1699 – is located, and end at gurudwara Hazoor Sahib in Nanded in Maharashtra.
The road, to be taken up as a project of national concern, will pass through Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Several Sikh scholars designated by the Punjab government had recently travelled through several states to chalk out the route of the road, named after the 10th Sikh guru, Gobind Singh.
The central government has agreed to Badal’s proposal that the historic route be treated as a national highway with a religious nomenclature, the spokesperson added.
Ministers and officials of the concerned states also attended the meeting. Tourism Minister Ambika Soni will convene a follow-up meeting to work out a plan to expedite the project. Existing roads and highways in these states will be part of the new Guru Gobind Singh Marg.
The road will link important and historic Sikh religious shrines located in these states, the spokesman added.