India, March 12 -- The 667-km Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway will now be completed in phases up to March 2028, with several stretches witnessing delays and some contracts being foreclosed and re-tendered, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The expressway linking Delhi with Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir is expected to reduce the Delhi-Amritsar distance by about 40 km, cutting travel time to Amritsar to around five hours and to Katra to about seven hours.

Gadkari said contracts for four stretches covering a total of 147.66 km have been foreclosed and fresh bids invited to complete the work. These include section VIII (35.09 km), section X (39.5 km), section XI (43.02 km) and Amrit...