Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train: Land acquisition to take six months

Land acquisition for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project, which is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to just two hours, seems to be in the slow lane. The deadline for completion of land acquisition was December, but it will take at least six more months in Gujarat, multiple officials involved in the process said.

Of the total 508 km proposed corridor, 350 km is in Gujarat. It will pass through eight districts - Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Kheda and Ahmedabad – and around 681 hectare land would need to be acquired. However, it was only last week, that the first piece of land for the project was actually acquired in Gujarat. Savitaben, an NRG from Germany, handed over her ancestral land in rural Vadodara to National High-Speed Rail Corporation.

In Ahmedabad, about 36 hectare land needs to be acquired in 15 villages. A senior official in the collector office said the process for joint measurement of land is in progress.

“The process of securing consent of farmers is going on in some of the villages. A formal notification for land acquisition will be issued soon. We hope to complete land acquisition within 5 to 6 months,” a senior official said.

In Kheda, 105 hectare land spread over 23 villages has to be acquired. An official involved in land acquisition said they have completed a joint measurement of land, and have received consent from one farmer so far.

Similarly, in Anand, the bullet train will pass through 11 villages, for which 47 hectare private land has been identified for acquisition.

“We have published the final notification for land acquisition in nine villages. Process for securing landowners’ consent and handing over awards will start in 15 days,” Anand collector Dilip Kumar Rana, told DNA.

Ninety-six-hectare land needs to be acquired in 35 villages of Vadodara for the high-speed rail corridor. Vadodara’s resident additional collector DR Patel said they have secured the consent of more than 90% farmers in Chansad and Khalipur villages, and “the process is going on in other villages”.

Officials admitted that land acquisition process was yet to pick up speed, mainly because of farmers’ opposition, but officials expressed confidence that the work would be completed soon.

“There was some resistance to giving up land earlier, but most issues have been resolved. Landowners are getting a very good price after the state government announced a new package, and the resistance level now is very low,” Surat collector Dr Dhaval Patel, said.

In view of farmers’ opposition, the state government doubled compensation for land losers. Revenue minister Kaushik Patel said the farmers in urban regions would also get four times the market rate like their rural counterparts.

“We have taken this decision to expedite land acquisition process for bullet train,” he had said. In addition, farmers would also get an additional 25% bonus on the compensation amount, the minister had announced.

In Surat, 141 hectare land would be acquired in 28 villages. Of these, that measurement has been completed in nine villages, and it is in progress in the remaining. “We hope to complete the acquisition process in six months,” he added.

Asked about the slow pace of acquisition, a senior state government official denied that the delay was from there side. “We received the final alignment of bullet train project only in July, and we started acquisition process after that. Land acquisition is a complicated process, but we have made good progress since, and have directed officials to speed it up,” the official said. Collectors of Bharuch, Valsad and Navsari did not respond to phone calls and messages. However, officials said that measurement and other works are in progress in these districts too.