Rlys to conduct survey for Pinjore-Baddi track

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 3

In a bid to speed up land acquisition for the Pinjore-Baddi rail track, the Railways will conduct a joint survey with the SDM Nalagarh, who has been appointed as an arbitrator for compulsory acquisition of this Special Railway Project.

The land is supposed to be acquired from nine villages, namely Sarajmajra Labana, Baddi Sheetalpur, Chak Jangi, Kalyanpur, Bilanwali Gujran, Landewal, Sandhuli, Haripur Sandhuli and Kainduwal for laying this 33.2-km rail line. Out of this, barely 3-km stretch falls in Himachal. A stretch of 345.13 bighas will be acquired at a cost of Rs 1,540 crore.

Sanctioned in 2007-2008, this broad gauge new rail line is supposed to provide major relief to the industry housed in the industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh. Since the BBN area neither has raw material nor is a market for selling finished goods, the high cost of transportation using roadways was making goods manufactured here uncompetitive.

Therefore, the government was keen to provide rail connectivity to this area as it would also facilitate thousands of industry executives commuting from the tricity as well as the migrant labourers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, etc., to commute to and fro from the area.

SDM Nalagarh Prashant Deshta said a letter has been received from the Northern Railways directing him to depute staff for conducting a joint survey for acquiring land for this key rail project. He said a requisition to appoint five to seven staffers, including patwaris and kanungos, has been sent to the railway officials. Following their sanction, they will be appointed to initiate the work which could take at least a year and a half.

Notably, with the area housing Asia’s largest truck union, there was reluctance among the locals to allow setting up of a rail line. It remains to be seen whether move to acquire land would succeed in bringing rail connectivity to this industrial belt.

The rail track will be laid through the Surajpur Chandi-Dhamal area near the HMT, Pinjore-Lohgarh-Khera-Tanda-Joluwaal-Kona-Marrawala belt and will finally touch Shitalpur at Baddi, abutting the Container Corporation of India’s depot. It will further lead to Haripur-Sandholi. Two level-crossings will be provided at Nanakpur and Baddi.