Industrialists feel let down

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 26

With the Union Railways Minister making no announcements about providing financial support to any new railway line for various industrial areas in state, the Budget has left industrialists here high and dry.

Investors in the industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), which houses nearly 2,100 industrial units, were hopeful of the area getting rail connectivity as a survey of a 13-km track had already been completed.

The state government on its part had already announced its will to pool in 50 per cent of the total project cost which stood at Rs 387 crore. The track was supposed to be laid through Surajpur, 3 km from Kalka.

Harish Aggarwal, senior vice-president of Nalagarh Industries Association, who also runs a cement unit, while terming it as a big disappointment, said: “It is unfortunate that a big industrial cluster like BBN has been ignored for providing rail connectivity though it could have been linked without much hassle from Ghanauli.”

He said a train link to BBN connecting Ghanauli would have helped in increasing the occupancy of trains which ply from Nangal as they had a few passengers.

With goods worth 1 lakh tonne being transported from the BBN area on a daily basis, the absence of a rail link was forcing investors to invest more on freight which was monopolised by truck unions.

Arun Rawat, president, CII’s Himachal Council, said a rail link was the need of the hour in the BBN where traffic influx was taking a toll on narrow roads.

He said Budget had disappointed the industry as various industry associations had been pursuing this issue on a regular basis.

Rail link would have also facilitated operations of the inland container depot which was presently transshipping industrial goods to Ambala and this could be upgraded to an inland container depot which would work as a dry port.

Inland container depot has been set up at Baddi by the Container Corporation of India after investing crores, but it could not attain its optimum use in the absence of a rail link.