Roads: Rs 1,785 crore heritage route

Seventy-nine years after Mahatma Gandhi and fellow satyagrahis marched from Ahmedabad to Dandi in Gujarat to protest the British Raj’s decision to impose a salt tax in India, the Centre has set in motion a mammoth project to create a first-of-its-kind “heritage route” of 386 km connecting the state capital to the village.

A proposal is now with the Planning Commission to allocate Rs 1,785 crore for the balance period of the 11th Plan for “Dandi Heritage Road”. This is based on preliminary cost estimates submitted by the NHAI.

The stretch, which in parts is just muddy tracks, was declared a National Highway (no: 228) in June 2006. Development work now would be taken up in two phases. In the first phase, improvement of the riding surface and widening of carriageway will be taken up and in Phase-II, upgradation of the road to two-lanes and construction of bridges (parts of the stretch run through marshlands) have been proposed In April 2005, the “Dandi Yatra”was re-enacted with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, among others, walking to Dandi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced then in Dandi, that all the places where Gandhiji and his followers had halted during the 26-day march would be converted into memorials.

—Puja Mehra