33% land for bullet train project acquired in Maharashtra

As per the information provided by NHSRCL, of the 432 hectares (ha) of land required for the bullet train project in Maharashtra, 143ha or 33% has been acquired

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has completed acquisition of 33% of land in Maharashtra for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor – the pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A senior NHSRCL official said that they are expecting to speed up the process and acquire more land in Maharashtra in the coming months for the bullet train project. (HT FILE)

As per the information provided by NHSRCL, of the 432 hectares (ha) of land required for the project in Maharashtra, 143ha or 33% of land has been acquired. In Gujarat, 1,084.48ha of the required 1,396ha has been acquired. In Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the acquisition is about 97%, with 933.52ha of the required 955ha been acquired for the corridor.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier questioned if the bullet train project was of any benefit to the state. The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) had appeared “non-committal” on the project after coming to power in 2019.

“Land acquisition is going on in Maharashtra and we are expecting to speed up the process and acquire more land in the coming months for the project,” said a senior NHSRCL official.

To push the acquisition process, Union minister of state for railways, Raosaheb Danve, had visited Mumbai last month and interacted with senior officials from NHSRCL, Western Railway, collectors of Palghar, Raigad and Thane districts as well as state government officials. He had also directed the officials to work on increasing the pace of acquisition of the land.

The construction work of the bullet train corridor project has started in Gujarat and the first phase between Surat and Bilimora is expected to open by 2026.

Of the total 508.17km route of the bullet train, 155.76km is in Maharashtra, 384.04km is in Gujarat and 4.3 km is in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The estimated cost of the project is ₹1.10 lakh crore, of which ₹88,000 crore will be funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).