With the Centre yet to take a concrete decision on acquiring land for the proposed Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri railway line,the Himachal Pradesh government on Friday proposed to construct the Kalka-Baddi-Bilaspur-Beri railway line with the help of cement companies with manufacturing units in the area. The government also made a fresh request to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to consider the Manali-Leh railway line,a proposal which was submitted by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in 2008 in view of its strategic importance especially after China created world-class infrastructure in the Tibet region. At a high level meeting convened by Dhumal to review the status of pending railway projects,it was decided to build the Kalka-Baddi-Nalagarh-Bilaspur railway line covering a major portion of the industrial belt. The government proposes to ask the cement firms,which have their manufacturing units in the area,to share the cost of the project. The state had earlier agreed to share 25 per cent of the project cost of the 63-km Bhanupalli-Bilaspur railway line. The project cost has escalated by about Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore now.
