Haryana’s orbital rail project will generate jobs, boost economy, says Amit Shah

Besides laying the foundation stone of the Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor Project, which is projected to cost about ₹5,618 crore, the home minister inaugurated three other projects

The Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor project and the rail coach refurbishing factory at Sonipat will together boost the economy and logistics industry and create employment in the state, Union home minister Amit Shah said Thursday while he virtually laid the foundation stone of the rail corridor project at a Jan Utthan rally in Faridabad

Union home minister Amit Shah at the Jan Uthhan rally in Faridabad. (HT Photo)

He said the projects, part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign initiated by the government across the country, are “a gift from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the people of Haryana”, and added the double-engine Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the state and Centre had fuelled Haryana’s growth.

“The people of Haryana will be happy to know that the coaches for the Vande Bharat trains will be built at the rail coach factory in Sonipat. The orbital rail corridor will facilitate the operation of superfast trains such as Shatabdi Express between Gurugram and Chandigarh bypassing Delhi,” said the home minister, adding that the present BJP government has the distinction of completing projects on time.

Besides laying the foundation stone of the Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor Project, which is projected to cost about ₹5,618 crore, the home minister inaugurated the rail coach refurbishment factory at Barhi in Sonipat district, developed at a cost of ₹590 crore. He also inaugurated the country’s longest elevated railway track at Rohtak, built at a cost of ₹315.40 crore. The fourth project he inaugurated was the Haryana police residential complex at Bhondsi, where 576 flats have been constructed at a cost of ₹106 crore.

Taking a dig at opposition parties, Shah said that in the past chief ministers would only work for their own districts, but for the first time, the state had got a chief minister who worked for everyone, irrespective of caste or region.

Speaking of the state’s development under chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the home minister said that Haryana has become the first state to become smoke-free as every household has a gas stove. It also ranks second in the country in terms of food grain production and milk production, he said.

Shah added that Haryana has stood first in sports. He also said that in last eight years, Haryana had improved considerably in the fields of export, software production, manufacturing--all of which he attributed to the double engine governments of BJP in the state and Centre.

Addressing the gathering, union minister of railways and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the rail coach refurbishment factory will create a huge ecosystem as over 800 vendors are involved in this process. He also said that the orbital rail project will boost connectivity and logistics in the entire state.

Vaishnaw said that under the present government, the annual budgetary allocation for Haryana had been increased from ₹350 crore to ₹1,400 crore. He also said that seven railway stations in Haryana will be turned into world class facilities. The tender for a world-class railway station in Faridabad has been finalised at a cost of ₹262 crore. Similarly, the master plan for the construction of world-class railway stations in Gurugram, Chandigarh, Ambala Cantt, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Panipat is being prepared, said Vaishnaw.

Speaking at the event, chief minister Khattar said that his government was working to change the system in the last eight years--everyone was being given the benefit of all welfare schemes online, and a network of national highways and rail lines had been laid in the entire state. “We have brought radical changes in all other areas including education and health,” he said.

However, Captain (retd) Ajay Singh Yadav, senior Congress leader and former Haryana minister, who is participating in the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, said the achievements of the BJP government cited by their leaders are false and alleged that BJP leaders are spreading fake information because the government has not been able to do much. “Not even a single kilometre of Metro has been extended in Gurugram. Plans for a branch of AIIMS in Rewari and a defence university in Binola all remain on paper. All digital schemes cited by this government don’t offer any solution to people on the ground who are facing unemployment, inflation and other similar issues. The home minister has been given wrong feedback about this government,” he said.