NHSRCL acquires 40.39% land in Maharashtra for Mumbai – Ahmedabad train corridor

40.39% land has been acquired for the construction of Mumbai - Ahmedabad high speed train corridor by the NHSRCL

Mumbai: The Mumbai - Ahmedabad high speed bullet train project gets a land in Maharashtra. 40.39% land has been acquired for the construction of Mumbai - Ahmedabad high speed train corridor by the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), body that will undertake construction of the high speed train corridors in India. In order to construct the Mumbai- Ahmedabad high speed train corridor, 432.67 hectares of land in Maharashtra is required. Of this, 174.77 hectares has been acquired so far according to the NHSRCL.

The bullet train project gets 40.39% land in Maharashtra by the NHSRCL (Shutterstock)

As per the latest information by the NHSRCL in Maharashtra — 82.31 hectares of land of the required 287.53 hectares has been acquired in Palghar, 92.46 hectares of land in Thane of the required 140.32 hectares. However, no land so far has been acquired in Mumbai suburban of the required 4.82 hectares.

In the Mumbai suburban area, land is required for the construction of the Mumbai underground high speed train terminal at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), which has not been acquired yet.

The NHSRCL recently deferred the bid submission for construction of the station at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) till April 2022 due to delay in land acquisition.

In order to begin the on-ground construction in Maharashtra for the project, 80 to 90% land will be acquired. The land acquisition has been at a slow pace in Maharashtra because of the reluctance from the state government. The Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier questioned if the bullet train project of any benefit to the state and the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) had appeared non- committal on the project after coming to power. On ground construction work for the corridor has started in Gujarat. In October, NHSRCL had acquired 33 percent of land in Maharashtra for the project.

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. The 508.17 km of the Mumbai project, 155.76 km is in Maharashtra, 384.04 km in Gujarat and 4.3 km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The estimated cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is ₹1,10,000 crore of which ₹88,000 crore will be funding from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).