Rs 12K-cr, 244-km Tricity ring road to end region’s gridlock by 2026

In what is set to be the biggest mobility intervention in the region’s history, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is stitching together a 244-km, eight-project ring road network costing over Rs 12,000 crore around the Tricity to tame its spiralling traffic congestion.

Senior NHAI officials supervising the ongoing works told The Tribune that most major stretches will be ready by mid-2026, marking the first time Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula will have a dedicated outer mobility arc to divert heavy, interstate and non-local traffic away from urban choke points.

How it will help

Diverts non-local traffic away from city sectors

Cuts travel time on Delhi-Chandigarh, Mohali-Kharar, Airport Road corridors

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Reduces congestion on NH-5 & NH-7 through Zirakpur and Panchkula

Brings pollution, fuel use and accident risk down

Boosts connectivity to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and J&K

Encourages planned growth along new mobility corridors

The development comes amid an unprecedented motorisation surge in the region, where the vehicle count has already surpassed the human population. Chandigarh alone has over 14.5 lakh vehicles for an estimated 13 lakh residents, with 104 new vehicles registered daily, giving it the highest per-capita vehicular density in the country. The officials said the ring road was no longer a development project but an urgent structural necessity for a city whose internal road network is “buckling under sheer demand”.

At the core of the ring road stands the six-lane Ambala-Chandigarh Greenfield Corridor, whose two packages together form a 61.23-km high-speed spine. Package-1, the 30-km Ambala-IT City Mohali section costing Rs 1,641.66 crore, is 75% complete and targeted for May 2026 opening. Package-2, the 31.23-km IT City–Kurali stretch built for Rs 1,525.3 crore, is at the finishing stage with the Bhakra Beas Management Board’s high-tension line already shifted and is scheduled to open by December 15. Once operational, this corridor will bypass Mohali, Kharar and Kurali, reducing pressure on the bursting-at-seams Airport Road and NH-205-A while directly funnelling Delhi and Haryana-bound traffic toward Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

Another crucial limb, the four-lane Mohali-Sirhind corridor (NH-205-AG), is 68% complete, covering 27.37 km at a cost of Rs 1,514.54 crore, with an NHAI-set deadline of May 2026. Its second part — the Sirhind-Sehna 106.92-km extension costing Rs 4,598.3 crore — is in the approval stage, pending with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Senior officials said the express link would act as an alternative to the “urban-locked and severely stressed” NH-7, where widening was nearly impossible. When complete, it will cut Mohali/Chandigarh-Bathinda travel by 35 km and reduce the journey time by up to 2.5 hours.

The most delayed yet vital segment is the Rs 1,878.31-crore, 19.2-km Zirakpur-Panchkula bypass, for which bids will be submitted by December 20 and opened on December 22. The bypass — featuring a 6.195-km elevated stretch, multiple flyovers, a railway overbridge and nine light underpasses — has been held up for years due to forest clearance issues, though Stage-1 approval came in August and the Stage-2 verification process is underway. Officials expect the work to be awarded in early 2026, with construction beginning by March-April, subject to timely environmental clearance. Land acquisition had been completed in 2020.

The remaining components completing the mobility ring include the existing 7.33-km four-lane NH-5, the under-construction Pinjore bypass, the 20.3-km four-laning of the Pinjore-Baddi-Nalagarh NH-105 section, which was earlier foreclosed and now bids have been re-invited for its balance work, a 12-km state road being upgraded to four lanes subject to land availability and feasibility and is under DPR stage, a 9.4-km four-lane toll road under the state government and a 10.3-km six-lane spur that forms part of the Zirakpur bypass package, which is under the approval stage. Once connected, these links will ensure that traffic headed to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir can skirt the urban core entirely, freeing Chandigarh and its satellite towns from daily peak-hour paralysis.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, who had been pushing the bypass and ring road plan, told The Tribune that the Tricity’s decongestion blueprint was a “flagship mobility intervention under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan”, emphasising that the network would “seamlessly link the region while removing chronic bottlenecks on the Zirakpur-Chandigarh corridor and easing interstate movement”.

Senior NHAI engineers reiterated that sentiment, saying this ring system will be “the most transformative road project undertaken in the region in decades”.

According to officials, the full ring is expected to take shape progressively through 2026, with the Ambala-IT City, IT City-Kurali and Mohali-Sirhind stretches forming the first operational arc. The completion of the Zirakpur bypass, NH-105 upgrades and the Sirhind-Sehna extension will close the loop. “Once functional, the ring road will redirect thousands of vehicles daily away from Chandigarh’s internal grid,” an NHAI project head said, predicting improved air quality, shorter commutes, lower accident exposure and reduced load on NH-5, NH-7, the Airport Road, the Kharar stretch and Old Ambala Road. “This is the decongestion framework the Tricity has waited for over a decade,” he said.