Foundation stone to be laid for Haryana orbital rail on November 3

The Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor project is expected be completed in five years, according to officials

Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday will lay the foundation stone for the construction of a part of the of Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor (HORC), a 29.5km section from Dhulavat in Tauru to Badhsa in Jhajjar district.

Gurugram DC Nishant Yadav during an investigation visit for the foundation stone laying ceremony of HORC project scheduled on Friday. (HT)

In its entirety, HORC is a 126km rail line project connecting Palwal and Sonepat, and passing through Nuh, Sohna, Manesar and Kharkhoda along the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway. The estimated cost of the project is ₹5,618 crore.

A district administration spokesperson said the foundation stone laying ceremony for the construction of the Dhulavat-Badhsa section will be held on November 3 (Friday) near Pataudi Road Toll Plaza of the KMP Expressway in Gurugram.

The spokesperson said deputy commissioner, Gurugram, Nishant Kumar Yadav on Tuesday inspected the venue to take stock of the preparations for the bhoomi pujan (ground breaking) ceremony. He also inspected the venue with officials of Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation, and other district administration officials.

Providing the details about the project, chief project manager, HORC, Rajiv Ranjan said in the Dhulavat-Badhsa section, a 29.5km long electrified double line will be built. “There will be five stations in this section -- Dhulavat, Chandla Dungarwas, Panchgaon, Manesar and New Patli. Preparations are on for the foundation stone laying programme,” he said.

According to information shared by the state government earlier, the HORC project will be completed in five years. It will have six junctions or crossing stations at Prithla, Manesar, New Patli, Badsa, Mandothi and New Harsana Kalan. The rail network has been designed for passenger trains to attain a maximum speed of 160km/hour and freight trains a speed of 100 km/hour.

It will have five crossing stations and six halt stations. It will be connected with Indian Railways network at Patli, Sultanpur, and New Harsana Kalan, the government spokesperson said.

The HORC will also facilitate the running of Shatabdi trains from Gururgam to Chandigarh, bypassing Delhi. It will provide transportation service to 20,000 passengers daily as the HORC will also be connected to the Maruti Plant in Manesar through a railway line.

The Haryana Orbital Rail Project is one of the several projects being developed in the state to improve connectivity via road and rail, particularly in south Haryana and Gurugram.

Apart from HORC, the Union government has planned the Regional Rapid Rail System on two routes, one from Delhi towards Behror and another from Delhi to Panipat. Besides these, a project to extend the Metro line from Millennium.City Metro station (formerly Huda City Centre station) to Old Gurugram has also been approved by the Union cabinet and the foundation stone is likely to be laid in the next two or three months.