State yet to provide its share of funding, Baddi railway project to miss deadline

The state government is yet to pay its entire share for the crucial Chandigarh-Baddi railway project, which was being funded in the 50:50 ratio along with the Central Government.

Advertisement

The total project cost is pegged at Rs 1,540.13 crore. With impediments like delay in payments and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) halting the work, the project was slated to miss its deadline fixed for June 2025. The NGT was hearing a petition on illegal use of soil for the project

The Railway Ministry had allocated Rs 452.50 crore of the total outlay in the last fiscal, imparting pace to the Chandigarh-Baddi railway link project. A sum of Rs 300 crore was allocated to expedite the completion of the 33.23-km Chandigarh-Baddi railway line in the 2024-25 interim budget.

The completion of two new railway projects of Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri and Chandigarh-Baddi have been delayed due to the non-fulfillment of commitments by the state government as Rs 1,496.75 crore is outstanding.

“The state government has granted Rs 340.74 crore to the Northern Railway, including Rs 130.05 crore during 2024-25 while its pending liability is Rs 109.26 crore,” said Ajay Sharma, Director, Ropeway and Rapid Transport Development Corporation. He added that the remaining fund would be provided when the project nears completion.

“For a small patch of land, its value is being re-evaluated. The construction of a railway over-bridge at Sandholi is yet to begin. A compensation of about Rs 5 crore to Rs 7 crore is yet to be paid to the landowners, pending completion of formalities while 90 per cent of the work has been completed,” said Subhash Saklani, Officer on Special Duty, who has been entrusted with the task of land acquisition for the project at Nalagarh.

The civil work executed by Haryana at Chandimandir was also going on at a slow pace which would delay its timely completion.

The 27.95-km railway line will have a 3.05 km stretch in Himachal and the rest 24.9 km in Haryana. Declared a special railway project by the Union Ministry of Railways on June 6, 2019, it will provide connectivity to the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial hub.

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