Panipat Elevated Expressway Project

Diptimoy Datta,Senior DGM (Bridges), ECC Division L&T,New Delhi

Panipat, the war city of India situated at 90 km from National capital,Delhi, has a glorious past in the Indian history. It is said that at the time of battle of Mahabharat one of the five villages which were demanded by the pandavas was "Panpat” which was later on renamed as Panipat. Three major battles were fought at this place in 1526, 1556 and 1761. Panipat is famous in India by the name of “City of Weaver.” Panipat district has significant place in international market for “Handloom products.” It is also the biggest centre for shoddy yarn in the world.

National Highway No. 1 connecting Delhi-Panipat-Ambala-Amritsar and going upto Indo/Pak border is a very important National highway and connects northern part of the country including states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana with Delhi and rest of the country. In eventuality of war, this road also serves as a vital link to Wagha border area as Delhi Cantonment, Ambala Cantonment and Jalandhar Cantonment are situated along side this road. As a result traffic intensity on the road is very high. The project section through Panipat is a serious bottleneck to the speedy, smooth and safe flow of traffic mainly on account of congested ypes of traffic due to Panipat being an industrial city.