The strategically important Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Berry-Barmana broad gauge railway line will be cleared of the displaced by the end of 2024. This target has been set by the Railway Development Corporation and work is going on at a fast pace to achieve the target.
The special thing is that on this railway line based on the New Austrian tunneling method, eight out of total 16 tunnels from Dharot to Bilaspur have been break-through so far, while the work on the rest is in progress.
A total of 20 tunnels will be built from Dharot to Barmana. The cost of this project is estimated to be seven thousand crore rupees. According to the information, the length of the railway line will be 63.1 kilometers from Dharot to Bari Barmana, the border with Punjab in the district.
The special feature of this project is that the width of the rail track is 1676 mm i.e. 1.676 m, while the track width of Kalka-Shimla is one metre.
In such a situation, this is the first broad gauge railway line in the entire Himachal Pradesh with a track width of 1676 mm. The railway line from Dharot to Bari Barmana will be completed in four phases.
The FCA clearance of government land for the first three phases has been done, while in-principle approval has been received for the fourth phase. Next action will be initiated after final approval. Along with this, action is also going on regarding private land acquisition.
Apart from this, there is 45.31 hectares of private land, for which the process is going on at the administrative level to acquire. In the fourth phase, a total of 2143 small and big trees and plants will be cut from Badhyat to Barmana, out of which 1021 are big trees, while 1082 are small trees and plants and 40 bamboos.
The special thing is that as many trees and plants will be cut, twice as many plants will be planted. Forest Divisional Officer of Bilaspur, Avani Bhushan Rai said that in-principle approval has come for the fourth phase case.
Twelve hectares of land till Barmana is under the Forest Department, whose clearance is to be done. At the same time, Assistant General Manager of Railway Development Corporation Anmol Nagpal says that by the end of 2024, the work of 52 km railway line will be completed till Bilaspur, for which work is going on at a fast pace.
District Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Rai said that he himself is inspecting the time-to-time work to complete the construction work of the railway line under the set target.
Acquisition of 70 out of 80 Hectares of Private Land
According to the Assistant General Manager of Railway Development Corporation, there is 80 hectares of private land from Dharot to Bilaspur, out of which 70 hectares have been acquired so far, while action is underway for the remaining 10 hectares.
There are some villages where there is a dispute over a small amount of land, which is being resolved. It is expected that after the notification of Section-19, the work will speed up.
