Govt orders land acquisition for Pinjore-Baddi rail line

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, December 4

The government has ordered compulsory acquisition of land for laying the 33.2-km Pinjore-Baddi rail line, which has failed to make any headway even after a decade.

Nalagarh SDM Prashant Deshta has been appointed the arbitrator and needs to begin the work at the earliest.

Confirming the development, Deshta said, a request had been sent to the Railways to depute requisite staff and paraphernalia, which had also been done by their counterparts in Haryana, to begin compulsory acquisition of the 3-km land falling in Himachal.

A stretch of 345.13 bighas will be acquired 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 the rail line in Himachal.

With locals demanding high land award, the ambitious project has failed to see the light of day. Land awards had previously been worked out four times the value of the circle rates as the locals had refused to accept 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.

Year-long efforts made by the Land Acquisition Officer and the SDM to prevail upon the locals to accept the lower rates failed to fructify in the previous years.

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 the same amount is supposed to be provided by the state government for land acquisition. With the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh housing nearly 2,000 industrial units, 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 is considered crucial to sustain the industry as high freight in the area has been acting as a deterrent to the industry to stay put here after a lapse of the Central financial incentives.

345.13 bighas required for project 

• A stretch of 345.13 bighas will be acquired 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 the rail line in Himachal. 
• 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.