Katol Bypass Work Pushed to 2028 Amid Wildlife Clearance Hurdles
Nagpur: The long-pending four-laning of National Highway-353J between Nagpur, Fetri, and Katol continues to face major delays. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) informed the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Wednesday that critical portions of the project — including the Katol bypass and Tiger Corridor — are now expected to be completed only by 2027 and 2028 respectively.
NHAI divisional manager Chandrakant Sinha, in a submission before the bench of justices Nitin Sambre and Sachin Deshmukh, stated that a 28.20km stretch of the road would be completed by December 2025. However, due to the requirement of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) clearance for animal-movement-friendly structures, two key segments — Tiger Corridor-I (8.10 km) and Katol bypass (11.90 km) — have been excluded from the original scope of work as of May 30, 2025.
As per the revised schedule, construction on Tiger Corridor-I is now expected to begin only by January 2026, after obtaining central clearance and completing the tender process. It is anticipated to finish by June 2027, with an estimated cost of Rs500 crore. Meanwhile, the Katol bypass project, which also requires fresh acquisition of 3 km of land, is slated to commence in March 2026 and wrap up by March 2028, taking into account the construction of a railway overbridge and other infrastructure.
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The delay was discussed during the hearing of two pending PILs — one by Dinesh Sheshrao Thakre and Sumit Ajay Babuta on the incomplete highway, and another by advocate Arun Patil on the overall poor condition of highways in Vidarbha. Senior counsel Firdos Mirza, advocates Mahesh Dhatrak and Anish Kathane represented the petitioners and NHAI, while govt pleader Deven Chauhan and additional govt pleader Deepak Thakare appeared for the state.
The court was informed that the detailed project report for the Katol bypass will be sent for approval by June-end, and land acquisition is expected to conclude by December 2025. The project was restructured due to ecological constraints, Sinha clarified during the hearing, which highlights the poor condition of several roads in the region, including the Amravati-Akola-Jalgaon and Wardha-Sindkhed Raja roads.
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