Axing of trees for Baddi rail project begins

Ambika Sharma

Solan, July 24

Delay in providing encumbrance-free land has hit the progress of the ambitious Chandigarh-Baddi railway project whose completion is eagerly awaited by the investors in this industrial belt.

Though key steps like axing of trees have begun and a tender has been awarded for removing the high tension and low tension electricity lines from the acquired land this has happened two years after the project had begun.

Land in 9 villages yet to be acquired

• Delay in providing encumbrance-free land has hit the project
• Out of the 30.31 hectare land needed for the project, 4.34 hectare involving nine villages is yet to be acquired.
• Structures like godown of a petroleum company, a factory, houses, etc., were yet to be demolished.
• Axing of trees has begun and a tender has been awarded for removing the high tension and low tension electricity lines from the acquired land

As many as 119 trees are supposed to be axed from the private land besides some trees from the government land. The Forest Corporation was undertaking this task.

“About 45 more days would be consumed in removing the high tension and low tension electricity lines from the acquired land at places like Shitalpur and Baddi,” informed Deepak Verma, Executive Engineer, HP State Electricity Board Limited, Baddi.

Various structures like 700 m long goods platform are being constructed though the track will be laid once the entire land is made available to the contractor. The rail track will be connected to the existing track at Chandimandir to provide connectivity to Baddi.

Structures like godown of a petroleum company, a factory, houses, etc., were yet to be demolished and this has hit the construction of the goods platform. It has been constructed in two patches of 200 m each.

“Out of the 30.31 hectare land which was supposed to be acquired, as much as 4.34 hectare involving nine villages was yet to be acquired. While Rs 142 crore was received as compensation, as much as Rs 129 crore have been disbursed and balance compensation of 12.78 crore was yet to be disbursed,” informed Subhash Saklani, Officer on Special Duty, entrusted the task of land acquisition.

Saklani said the remaining works like acquisition of the remaining 4.34 hectare land and demolition of few structures on the acquired land would be removed soon after the grant of compensation and entire land would be made available to the contractor.

Land has been acquired from various villages, including Saraj Majra, Shitalpur, Kalyanpur, Chak-Jangi, Landewal, Kenduwal, Billanwali, Gujran, Hariour Sandholi and Sandholi, in Baddi industrial area.

Sanctioned in 2007-08, the broad gauge project has been delayed due to various reasons, including high acquisition cost and Haryana’s refusal to pool in resources.

The Ministry of Railways had notified the link as a special project in 2019 to speed up acquisition.

Its timely completion was eagerly awaited as it would put an end to disputes relating to freight rate which crop up in industrial belts every now and then.