Sangrur, August 20
When his palatial house built in the lush green fields came in the way of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway Project, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi, a resident of Roshanwala village in Sangrur district, came up with a unique and brilliant idea to save it from demolition. Sukhi decided to move his two-storey house 500 feet back from the existing location to facilitate construction of expressway and also save his dream abode.
When he started constructing his house in 2017, Sukhi had never imagined that he would one day have to shift his entire house.
However, the government decision to construct a new expressway, which had to pass through his land, left this Sangrur farmer with no option, but to come up with a ‘desi jugaad’ and he came up with a unique idea of shifting the house instead of demolishing it.
Though the farmer was offered compensation by the Punjab government to remove the structure, he changed his mind. Instead of demolishing the house, Sukhi decided to shift the house’s location.
According to Sukhi, the house has an area of around 3000-3500 sq feet and he has spent over Rs 1.5 crore on its construction. Moreover it would have taken him another 2 years to build a new house.
Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi said, “I had built this dream home by spending a huge amount of money in two years. As such, I didn’t wish to construct a new house; so I decided to move this house away from the expressway. I have to move my house 500 feet back, out of which we have already pushed it 250 feet back and the work is still on.”
Pardeep Singh of nearby Krishanpura village said, “Earlier, we had seen people increasing the height of their houses, but this is for the first time that house has been moved 500 feet away from the original construction spot.”
The work to mover it back has been given to a private contractor. It has been going on for the past two months and will take two more months to complete. The workers are able to move it about 10 feet everyday. The total cost to move it will be around Rs 50 lakh.
Moreover, this house now has become a centre of attraction amongst the local residents, who are reaching at the spot to see its relocation.
The Delhi-Katra Expressway, which is to pass from here, will be amongst India’s longest expressways and will pass through Haryana, Punjab and Jammu amp; Kashmir covering a distance of 668 km and costing more than Rs 37,525 crore. One of the major benefits would be that travel time from Delhi to Katra, which presently takes around 11 to 12 hours will come down by at least 5 to 6 hours.
