Punjab farmer moves house for expressway

Sangrur: A farmer from Punjab's Sangrur is moving his two-storey house 500 feet away from the existing location to facilitate the construction of an expressway.

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi's house, built on his field in Roshanwala village in Sangrur, was coming in the way of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, which is being constructed under the centre's Bharatmala project aimed at reducing the travel time of commuters, officials said.

Once completed, the expressway will pass through Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

Sukhi, who was offered compensation by the Punjab government to remove the structure, then decided to shift the whole house to another place, instead of demolishing it The house has been moved by 250 feet with the help of some construction workers from the farmer's village, and work is underway to achieve the target of 500 feet.

A video shows some gears, which look like wheels, attached to the house to drag it away from the field.

"It took me two years and Rs1.5 crore to build this house. It's my dream project, I did not want to construct another house," the farmer said.

"Delhi-Amritsar-Katra National Highway is an ambitious project, which once completed, will save time, money and energy of commuters travelling from Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir via Punjab," Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had said last month.