Looking ahead: New Year to bring new International airport, upgraded railway station, smart city tag
A new international airport, facelift for railway station, new and upgraded highways and bridges, smart city tag, 24x7 drinking water supply, better healthcare facilities with major upgrade and renovation of the district hospital and ESIC hospital, first public sector ESIC medical college and last but not the least the much-awaited rejuvenation of the Buddha Nullah are the major projects and developments that Ludhiana, popularly known as Manchester of India, is looking ahead in 2025.
Besides, the major ongoing infrastructure development projects are also likely to be completed in the state’s biggest and largest district headquarters, in terms of area and population, during the New Year.
Ludhiana Tribune brings to its readers an overview of what is expected to come up in the industrial hub of the north India this year.
International airport
Ludhiana, which is reckoned as the financial capital of the state, will get an international airport in 2025. After remaining stalled for long, the work has almost completed with the interim terminal building and several other components already completed at the Air Force Station in Halwara, which is one of the oldest frontline airbases of the IAF, close to Ludhiana, at the cost of Rs 5,822.12 lakh. The big ticket project has been targeted to be completed by March 31 and the bidding process for operating commercial flights will commence shortly.
Besides the terminal building, the work on the sub-station, toilet block and allied works have also been completed while the runway overlaying work by the IAF has also picked up pace and was scheduled to be completed by March 31.
With all the pending nods having been procured, the work on all other components, which were stalled since long, has been done to ensure that the new international airport takes off in April.
Following the intervention of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry had recently granted all pending approvals to the project and had assured to launch the flights from here once the airport gets operational.
Railway stations
With the work on several components almost complete and the finishing job in progress, the redevelopment and upgrade of the Ludhiana railway station at the cost of Rs 528.95 crore is also likely to be completed in 2025.
The project, which was awarded at engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode to a local firm on December 19, 2023, has been targeted to be completed by August 2, 2025.
Another railway station at Dhandari Kalan, located on the Ambala-Ludhiana-Amritsar line under the Ferozepur division in Ludhiana district will also get a new look this year.
The work on the major revamp and upgrade plan at the cost of Rs 17.6 crore has reached an advanced stage of completion.
24x7 water supply
The work on the much-awaited 24x7 canal-based surface drinking water supply project worth Rs 3,394.45 crore in Ludhiana also got underway last year. While funds have already been allocated and land for the World Bank-funded project has already been acquired, the work will pick up pace this year as the RFP for the project had got the WB nod recently. The company for management of the project has been incorporated and the project implementation unit has been established.
The MC has formally signed the contract with a Mumbai-based joint venture company (JVC), which has been awarded the work at Rs 1,546 crore.
The MC has formalised the contract agreement with Kalpataru Projects International Limited (KPTL) Ohitan JV, which has been mandated to complete the project on the design-build services (DBS) basis within 36 months from the date of award on July 10 last, and undertake the operation and maintenance (O&M) services for the next 10 years.
Smart city
Ludhiana will further inch towards becoming a smart city with as many as 61 projects worth Rs 688.81 crore already been completed, 22 more schemes costing Rs 237.2 crore have been put under execution and are under various stages of progress.
Of the 22 under-execution projects, the work on 13 projects worth Rs 207.1 crore has already been awarded and is under progress while the remaining nine deposit works worth Rs 28.1 crore have been tendered out.
With this, a total of 83 projects worth Rs 924.1 crore are being undertaken by the LSCL to develop Ludhiana, which was among 100 cities in the country and three in the state, selected under the SCM to be developed as a smart city in the first round of the selection by the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) on June 25, 2015.
Buddha Nullah
With the Centre taking note following public outrage and media campaigns, residents hope that 2025 will witness the highly-polluted Buddha Nullah, a seasonal tributary of the Sutlej, which runs almost parallel to the river through most of Ludhiana district, including 14-km in the city, before merging with the river and entering Rajasthan, turning back to its clean and pristine state of the Buddha Dariya, a clean water body. While the ambitious Rs 840-crore rejuvenation project, which had already been more or less completed, had failed to make any difference, the Centre-State joint action group, led by Director Environment and Climate Change Manish Kumar, and the public movement Kale Pani Da Morcha, spearheaded by a group of environmentalists, besides the stepping in of environmentalist-turned-parliamentarian Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal, are expected to free the water body of widespread pollution.
Health
The district hospital would don a new look following a major revamp and upgrade, which was undertaken by RS MP and philanthropist Sanjeev Arora, who, in a first-of-its-type initiative, has adopted three district health facilities at Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, to develop them at par with private hospitals.
With this, patients, attendants, doctors, paramedics and other staff at the state’s one of biggest district health facilities, with daily OPD exceeding 1,100 patients, will avail better healthcare facilities.
The ailing healthcare services at the district hospital were being overhauled at the cost of Rs 10 crore.
A new 75-bed critical care unit and ICU at the district hospital would also start functioning in the New Year. It would help in cutting down the referral rate of patients.
In a major reprieve to the 12-lakh odd industrial workers, their lone exclusive health facility — ESI Corporation (ESIC) model hospital will also undergo major advancement and revamp.
This is the first-ever upgrade and overhaul of the ailing health facility for employees, especially industrial workers, most of whom are from the lower section of society, since its inception in 1969, at the cost of Rs 10.58 crore. The hospital was spread over 10.3 acres and was at present catering to 4.3 lakh insured workers.
While the ICU ward has already been upgraded and the medical gas pipeline also extended across entire hospital wards, other components of the upgrade project are also in the advanced stage of completion. The Centre had approved the project while acceding to the request of Arora in February last. Besides, the upgrade of health infrastructure, including Civil Hospital, Jagraon, CHC in Doraha, SDHs in Raikot and Khanna, MCH at Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, and CHCs in Machhiwara, Malout, Sahnewal, Pakhowal, Hathur, Payal, Dehlon and Sudhar, was also expected to see the light of the day this year.
New medical college
In what will give a much-needed impetus to medical education and research, a new government medical college will come up in Ludhiana. This will be the first public sector institution after two existing private medical colleges — Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) and Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) — already functioning here.
The new medical college will be established by the ESIC under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment with the intake of 50 undergraduate MBBS seats.
CM Bhagwant Mann has already agreed to provide 10 acres for the new campus to start functioning from the next academic session.
National highways
The work on several new under-construction national highways and bridges passing through Ludhiana district will also complete in 2025. These included Delhi-Amritsar-Katra, Ludhiana-Ropar, Ludhiana-Bathinda expressways, Southern Ludhiana Bypass, missing links on Ludhiana-Chandigarh highway, and four bridges on Sidhwan Canal.
Infra development
The work on big ticket infrastructure development projects being implemented at the cost of Rs 11,494-crore, which were put on fast track in Ludhiana district in 2021, are also expected to see the light of the day in 2025. Of the total 31 major development works, 27 have already been completed or were in the advanced stage of completion, while the rest four projects were targeted to be completed in the New Year.
New MC House
As the new 95 members of the civic body were elected during the elections held on December 21 following a delay of over 18 months, the MC House will get new Mayor and Deputy Mayors shortly. Issues such as poor solid waste management, overflowing sewers, rain waterlogging, stray dogs and cattle, polluted water bodies, illegal constructions, and others that remained unresolved so far will also seek resolution this year. The processing of around 1,100 metric tonnes of waste generated in the city daily also needs regular processing.
Industry
Industrialists hope to get a congenial environment for trade and industry in 2025. They look ahead for fulfilment of promises to provide power at Rs 5 per unit, better infrastructure at focal points and industrial areas, end to corruption by strengthening single windows and self-certification policy, tax and financial relief for their long sufferings, technology upgrade centre and expediting work on exhibition centre and freight corridor.
Sports
The sports infrastructure that required attention is in for major makeover during 2025. While several projects under the Smart City Mission had already been completed in 2024, the remaining are likely to be opened for sportspersons in 2025.
Periphery
Municipal towns of Jagraon, Mullanpur Dakha, Khanna, Sahnewal, Doraha, Samrala, Raikot, Payal, Machhiwara and Maloud in the vicinity of Ludhiana are also expecting major push to infrastructure and improvement in the basic civic amenities during 2025.
(Inputs by Manav Mander and Lovleen Bains)
