Mohali, Dec. 20 -- Having missed its December 2025 deadline, the long-awaited shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport is expected to be ready by March 2026. Officials from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) confirmed that while one stretch of the Rs.125-crore project will be made motorable by the end of this month, commuters will have to wait until March 31, 2026, for the entire link road to become operational. In February this year, the Punjab government told the Punjab and Haryana high court that the shorter route project will be completed by December 2025. The 8.7-km, 164-foot-wide stretch will allow commuters from Chandigarh and Mohali to head to the airport via the Sector 65-66 junction near Bawa White House, instead of taking the longer route via Airport Road. This will bring down the 15.8 km distance from Tribune Chowk, Chandigarh, to the airport in Mohali by nearly 7 km, thereby cutting down travel time. At present, commuters must travel all the way to the T-junction near Indian School of Business, after passing by Bawa White House, to turn left towards Airport Chowk, where they again have to turn left towards the airport. GMADA chief administrator Sakshi Sawhney said the project was nearing completion. "One stretch of the road will be made motorable by the end of this month, which will provide initial relief to commuters. However, the entire project is expected to be completed by March 31, after which the road will be fully operational," she said. GMADA had allotted the construction tender in July 2024 to a Bathinda-based firm. As per sources, work on the double-lane underpass beneath the railway line and a bridge at the N-choe was still underway. The much-delayed Greenfield project is set to be thrown open to public within a week, deputy commissioner Komal Mittal confirmed. The Rs.1,400-crore project, aimed at decongesting Airport Road by providing an alternative route for traffic heading towards Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, was scheduled to open on December 1 after missing its June and September deadlines this year. But a protest by landowners and farmer union members, demanding an entry and exit road near the toll plaza, stalled its launch. The protest was lifted on December 4, following which NHAI completed the final touches on the project. Executed under the central government's Bharatmala Pariyojana, the 31-km road runs from IT Chowk in Mohali to the Kurali-Chandigarh Road through the outskirts of Mohali city....