Pinjore-Baddi rail line fails to make headway

Ambika Sharma

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The much-awaited Pinjore-Baddi rail line has failed to take shape even after a decade.

The 33.2-km rail line will be laid on 345.13 bighas at a cost of Rs 1,540 crore. While a major chunk of the land falls in Haryana, the last leg of 3-km stretch falls in the Baddi industrial area. Land is supposed to be  acquired from nine villages for laying this rail track in Himachal.

The failure of locals to accept the land award has acted as a major stumbling block for this ambitious project to take off, though concerted efforts were made to settle the issue through negotiations.

Land awards had previously been worked out at four times the value of the circle rates as locals had put their foot down for accepting anything less. The previous state government had, however, failed to accept these rates as it would have set precedence, where all land owners would have demanded such high rates across the state. Despite year-long efforts made by the Land Acquisition Officer as well as the SDM to prevail upon the locals to accept lower rates, little success was achieved in securing their consent.  

“To resolve the stalemate the state government has finally decided to go in for land acquisition as negotiations have failed to resolve the land award issue. The process involves conducting a social impact assessment of the area, which would take at least a year, followed by the execution of the Land Acquisition Act, which in itself was slated to take about a year,” said Mukesh Kumar, a tehsildar in Baddi.

As per the survey, the rail track will be laid through the Surajpur Chandi-Dhamal near the HMT at Pinjore-Lohgarh-Khera-Tanda- Joluwaal-Kona- Marrawala and will finally touch Shitalpur in Baddi, abutting the Container Corporation of India’s depot and will further lead to Haripur-Sandholi. Two level-crossings will be provided at Nanakpur and Baddi. The highest circle rate of land in question is Rs 34.80 lakh. In Baddi-Shitalpur, Swarajmajra-Labana, Chak Jungi and Kalyanpur, the existing circle rate is Rs 21 lakh per bigha, while it is Rs 7. 20 lakh per bigha for Landewaal village, Rs 28.80 lakh per bigha for Billanwala Gujra village, Rs 21 lakh per bigha for Haripur Sandholi and Sandholi village, Rs 18 lakh per bigha for Kenduwaal village. A sum of Rs 45 crore has been provided by the Railways and a similar amount is supposed to be provided by the state government for land acquisition.

With nearly 2,000 industrial units being located in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area, the rail link is a key necessity and its significance has enhanced after the Container Corporation of India set up an inland freight station. Its utility will multiply multi-fold once the area gets rail connectivity. This has not only become a question of extreme urgency to the area to sustain the industrial growth, but has become a prestigious issue for both BJP and Congress, as successive governments have failed to ensure its completion despite announcing it almost a decade ago.

“The monopoly of the transport unions, who charge a freight, which was among the highest in Himachal, can only be broken once the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area gets rail connectivity. This will also help the state in overcoming the location disadvantage as rail will provide a cheaper source of transportation of industrial goods. The state government should speed up the land acquisition process and this will also give impetus to the industrial growth in the area,” confided Arun Rawat, former, CII Chairman, Himachal.