Mohali, May 6 -- With work still pending on the Greenfield Alignment Project, which is expected to decongest the Airport Road in Mohali, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has set a fresh deadline for its completion -- September 2025. A Maharashtra-based company, which was allotted the work in October 2022, had earlier been given time till June 2025. A senior NHAI official said, "Nearly 82% of the work has been completed and we can expect the project to be complete by September 2025." The 31-kilometre road, from IT Chowk (PR-7) near Chandigarh International Airport to Kurali-Chandigarh road, is being built in an area that has never been developed. NHAI had come up with the Greenfield Project after scrapping the 40-km Kharar-Banur-Tepla road project in July 2019, owing to its high cost. Once complete, it will help ease traffic in Chandigarh and Zirakpur by serving as an alternative route for those from Delhi heading towards Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The total cost of the project is nearly Rs.1,400 crore, out of which Rs.700 crore has been given for land compensation and the remaining Rs.700 crore is for the construction of the highway. In 2021, the project had been put on hold for nearly eight months as landowners were protesting the rates being offered for their land. The NHAI had then approved a four-fold increase in the compensation amount for landowners. While earlier the NHAI was to pay between Rs.24 lakh and Rs.4.18 crore per acre, depending on the location, now they have approved a compensation of Rs.1 crore and Rs.1.09 crore per acre to those who were to get Rs.24 lakh per acre. NHAI had released Rs.700 crore to acquire 450 acres in 28 villages and the district revenue officer has already disbursed compensation amount to landowners. Out of a total of 28 villages, 21 are from Kharar tehsil, while six villages are from Mohali tehsil....