Tiff between Indian Railways, Maharashtra government deepens over Bullet train

An argument ensued yet again between the Indian Railways and the Maharashtra government with regards to the country's first Bullet train project on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor.

During the high-level meeting between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Rail & Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on August 23, the proposed multi-crore International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at BKC, and the rehabilitation of project affected people (PAPs) at Palghar were the two main issues of discussion. The issues have become the primary bone of contention plaguing the Rs 1.08 lakh crore Bullet train project.

IFSC

According to sources, CM Fadnavis at the meeting was miffed with the Railways for not accommodating the state's views on increasing the height of the proposed IFSC to 96 meters from 61 meters.

"This will certainly result in issues as designs of the terminus coming up at BKC has been finalised. The Minister raised the point and cited that the project should not be delayed because of this," said a Railways official.

The MMRDA, on the other hand, claimed that the Railways did not approach them before finalising the designs for the Bullet train terminus that is coming on an area of 0.9 hectares.

"There are other buildings in and around BKC that are over 80 meters in height. We have offered to prepare a new design taking 96 meters height of IFSC into consideration," said an MMRDA official.

"We have also written to civil aviation ministry to give us special exception for height cap as the international civil aviation organisation had last year suggested a cap of around 65 metres. We are hopeful of getting the permission considering IFSC is a government project. It is Railways that assumed height of IFSC without asking us. But now we have offered to prepare new designs on their behalf, and it is wrong to say that because of this project will be delayed. The project has several other issues to tackle," added the MMRDA official.

Ulka Mahajan, who is heading Bullet Train Virodhak Janmanch said, "Just because these people are Adivasis, it doesn't mean that the railways can go ahead with compensation without taking the legal route".

The Railways is stating that this last moment change will delay the project. State officials, however, claim that barely any tract of land has been procured for the project, and so there is no question of delay coming in from their end.

PAPs from Palghar

National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) is likely to handover compensation to some of the project affected people (PAPs) — chiefly farmers owning agricultural land — near Palghar by September 1.

The Railways is walking on a tight-rope as far as land procurement for the Bullet train is concerned. It is hoping for the state government to sort out the issue and procure land within 3 months in order to meet the August 2022 deadline.

Of the total 508-kms, 108-kms of rail line for the project will come under Palghar for which 170 ha of land will be needed. 123 villages and towns fall under the Palghar district, which are more or less affected by land acquisition for the project.

As of now, joint survey for 120-kms is complete and villagers, whose land will be acquired, are expected to get compensation in next 2-3 days. There are a total of 7000-odd PAPs with most of them in Palghar district, who are opposing vehemently. Officials claim that they will be paying 2.5 times of the ready reckoner rate at urban areas and 5 times of the same in rural areas. The Railways will require around 825 ha of land for the project as 92 per cent route will be elevated, six per cent would go through tunnels, and only two per cent would be on ground.