CHANDIGARH, Dec 7— The long-delayed Zirakpur-Panchkula bypass, a critical segment of the Tricity ring road, will be built starting early 2026, NHAI officials said.
The 19.2-km, Rs 1,878-crore bypass will feature a 6.2-km elevated section, multiple flyovers, a railway overbridge, and nine light underpasses. Land acquisition was completed in 2020, and environmental clearance is awaited. Bids for the project will be submitted by December 20 and opened December 22.
“The Zirakpur bypass is vital for easing daily congestion on the busiest stretches of the Tricity,” a senior NHAI engineer said. “It will allow traffic heading to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir to completely avoid Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula.”
The bypass is part of the larger 244-km, eight-road ring being built at a cost of over Rs 12,000 crore. Other key stretches nearing completion include the Ambala–IT City Mohali and IT City–Kurali corridors, which will open in May and December 2026, respectively. The Mohali-Sirhind link, 68% complete, will provide an alternative to the overloaded NH-7 and reduce travel time by up to 2.5 hours.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the project is a “flagship mobility intervention” under the PM Gati Shakti plan, designed to “remove chronic bottlenecks on the Zirakpur-Chandigarh corridor and ease interstate movement.”
Officials said the full ring will progressively connect all stretches by 2026. “The bypass and the completed ring will finally free Chandigarh and its satellite towns from peak-hour paralysis,” an NHAI project head said.
