Fazilka, terminus of the TAPI gas pipeline, must not slip off the map, says former
Special Chief Secretary
Chandigarh, 15 October 2026: Only three of the 421 infrastructure projects evaluated in
five years of PM GatiShakti can be traced to Punjab in the public record, and all three are still at
an early stage, according to KBS Sidhu, retired Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab.
The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced on 13 October that the Network
Planning Group had evaluated 421 projects with an estimated value of about ₹20.23 lakh
crore, and that its geospatial platform now integrates more than 1,800 data layers. KBS Sidhu
points out that the figure equals about 5.8 per cent of India’s 2025-26 nominal GDP of
₹346.36 lakh crore, but that it measures projects evaluated, not money sanctioned or spent. By
August 2026, 256 of the 396 projects then evaluated had been sanctioned, and 198 were under
implementation.
In a D.O. letter dated 15 October to Cabinet Secretary Dr T.V. Somanathan, who chairs the
Empowered Group of Secretaries overseeing GatiShakti, KBS Sidhu has noted that the
Ministry’s release carries no State-wise break-up. He has enclosed an annexure of Punjab
projects dug out from the public domain:
▪ The Sirhind–Sehna section of NH-205AG (₹4,598 crore) was evaluated in March 2025
and still awaits Cabinet approval.
▪ The Zirakpur Bypass was evaluated at the same meeting and awarded only in March 2026.
▪ The Ambala–Jalandhar third and fourth rail lines were evaluated in September 2025, with
no sanction reported.
▪ NHAI terminated three Punjab packages of the Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway in May
2026, and the project’s cost has risen from ₹25,000 crore to ₹38,905 crore.
▪ Of 714 km of railway works sanctioned for Punjab, only 115 km had been commissioned by
April 2025; the Firozpur–Patti line still awaits 166 hectares of land.
“In nearly every case, the delay comes down to land, and the knots sit in the tehsil and the
Deputy Commissioner’s office,” said KBS Sidhu, who served twice as Financial Commissioner
Revenue, Punjab. “They loosen fastest when the Centre and the State sit at the same table, with
the revenue machinery in the room.”
He has, therefore, asked the Cabinet Secretary to chair a special Punjab-specific review at
Chandigarh, with the concerned Union Secretaries, the Chairman of NHAI, the Chief Secretary,
Punjab, and the Deputy Commissioners of the affected districts. He wants a consolidated
project-wise statement for Punjab placed before that meeting and then made public.
The letter gives a separate paragraph to the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI)
gas pipeline, whose designated terminus is Fazilka. The Turkmen section was completed in
2024, and construction in Afghanistan has been under way since September 2024. At the
Indian end, nothing visible has moved.
KBS Sidhu accepts that, given the present state of relations with Pakistan, transit through that
country may not be realistic for some time. He has asked the Government of India for a clear
view on India’s continuing participation through GAIL, so that Punjab can plan. He has also
proposed that the Fazilka terminal site and a pipeline corridor be protected as a layer on the
GatiShakti platform, and that the border districts be brought onto the national gas grid through
domestic and LNG-fed supply in the meantime.
“Fazilka was chosen as the gateway for Central Asian gas. That decision should not quietly lapse
because the pipeline is held up beyond our borders,” KBS Sidhu said.
KBS Sidhu argues that Punjab should receive not merely its proportionate share of the national
pipeline but rather more, as a border State which, in his view, has been neglected in public
sector investment in the past. “A border State’s roads, railway lines and pipelines are part of the
nation’s defences as much as its economy,” he said.
A copy of the letter has been sent to the Chief Secretary, Punjab, with a request to have the
State’s land position ready for the review. KBS Sidhu has written in his individual capacity.
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