With the Railways completing the feasibility survey of the alternate rail link to industrial town Baddi through Ghanauli,it seems all tracks are now clear for the rail line. Experts even termed the new alignment as having better feasibility than the original Chandigarh-Baddi rail link,which was scrapped. Pegged seven kilometres shorter than the Chandigarh-Baddi link and boasting of reducing construction cost by around 30 per cent,the rail line is expected to receive the final nod from the Railway Board within a month. The decrease in length,and subsequent reduction in the number of rail under-bridges and over-bridges have brought down the construction cost from Rs 750.81 crore to around Rs 525 crore. Also,this time the Railways have carefully selected the alignmentavoiding hilly terrain to steer clear of hurdles in land acquisition. Chief Administration Officer (Instructions),Northern Railways,Dharam Singh,who is in-charge of the project,said: The earlier project faced several roadblocks environmental clearance was not being granted as a major chunk of forest land had been included in the rail link. Also,there were certain issues in land acquisition as the link passed through a private housing project (Prideasia) in the IT Park. The decision to think of an alternate alignment was taken when the Chandigarh Administration categorically told the Railway authorities that land would not be transferred for the Chandigarh-Baddi rail link. Singh added: Certainly,the new alignment is more feasible. Once the budget allocations are received,construction will start. Ghanauli,in Punjab,is a small station from where the Ropar-Nalagarh rail alignment makes a diversion. It falls between Ropar and Kiratpur on the Sirhind-Ropar-Bharatgarh-Kiratpur-Nangal Dam rail link.
