Interim budget: ₹300 crore allocated to fast-track Chandigarh-Baddi railway link

The railways ministry had allocated ₹452.50 crore of the total outlay in the last fiscal, giving pace to the Chandigarh-Baddi railway link project

A sum of ₹300 crore was allocated to expedite the completion of the 33.23 km Chandigarh-Baddi railway line in the 2024-25 interim budget presented on Thursday.

As part of the 2024-25 interim budget, Centre has also allocated ₹93.26 crore for the redevelopment of Chandigarh railway station. (HT File Photo)

The ₹1,540-crore rail link, which is expected to be completed by June 2025, will connect Chandigarh to Baddi, an industrial hub in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan district.

Land for laying the railway line was acquired over the last four years. Work on the broad gauge line project had commenced in early August 2022. The railways ministry had allocated ₹452.50 crore of the total outlay in the last fiscal, giving pace to the project.

The rail line will have one station at Nanakpur and cover a total of 30 villages, including 21 in Haryana’s Panchkula.

The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial belt is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in Asia. At least seven lakh people employed with the medical units have been waiting for the railway project since the industries started setting up here in the early 2000s. The hub houses around 350 cosmetics and drug formulation units, with an estimated annual business of ₹30,000 crore, both domestic and international.

Sanctioned in 2007-08, the project had run into land acquisition troubles. To overcome the land-related issues, the railways had accorded it the status of “Special Railway Project” under the Railway Act, 2008, on June 20, 2019.

₹93.26 crore for Chandigarh railway station revamp

As part of the 2024-25 interim budget, the central government also allocated ₹93.26 crore for the redevelopment of Chandigarh railway station, aimed at improving passenger amenities.

Being upgraded at a total cost of ₹436.29 crore, the redeveloped Chandigarh station will have separate arrival and departure areas to provide passengers a comfortable and convenient travel experience. The revamp also includes a 72-metre-wide roof plaza over the platforms, state-of-the-art lobbies, a food court, a paid lounge, an enquiry counter, and office and retail spaces. Two state-of-the-art foot-overbridges (FOBs) will also be built to ensure smooth passenger movement.

The first phase is expected to be inaugurated in April 2024. The project had suffered multiple delays ever since it was first approved in 2014.