NHSRCL misses several deadlines in acquiring land for Bullet Train project

New Delhi (Urban Transport News): In one hand, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ruling party in centre, is promising a High-Speed Bullet Train corridor between Kanyakumari and Chennai through its general poll manifesto and raising hopes of better connectivity for the people but in another hand the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) which is executing India's first bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, is missing several deadlines in land acquisitions for the project.

The Government has set a deadline for December 2018 to clear the land acquisition roadblock. About 1,414 hectares land needed for the Rs 1.1 lakh crore high-speed rail corridor linking the Mumbai in Maharashtra and Ahmedabad in Gujarat for which land required from 11 districts of Maharashtra. Palghar district will give the most around 280 hectares but less than a tenth has been acquired till date.

The NHSRCL has already missed the December 2018 deadline for land acquisition whereas the project is scheduled to be completed by 2023. About 140 km north of the financial capital, in Dehane village of Dahanu block of the district, around 40 people of the Warli tribe gather to articulate their resistance to the project. Rupesh Rawte, a 42-year-old farmer who has 1.5 acres, asks why they should give up their land for a train that is not for them. He said that we will only be looking at it as it passes by.

It is not going to stop for us and we can’t afford it, TOI reported. The villages in the area are mostly populated by the Warlis, who depend on paddy cultivation. Dahanu is better known for its sapota orchards. Sushma Gaur, Spokesperson of NHSRCL said that around a third of the requisite land has been acquired. The NHSRCL has completed measurement surveys in 40 of the 79 villages in the district. “Lack of trust based on certain experiences and misconceptions about the project adversely affected the land acquisition process initially.

Now, with the help of the district administration, people are coming forward and are participating in the land acquisition process. The acquisition is based on consent and is fair and transparent", she said. But her statement does not match with the ground reality. Pascal Dongalkar, a resident of Uplat village in Talasri, another administrative block about a half-hour drive from Dehane, said that there is no way they can get any land. The gram sabhas have opposed it. Besides the bullet train, land acquisition for the Mumbai-Vadodara expressway will also be a factor in the election. BJP’s assurance of ST status to Dhangar community has also angered the Warlis as it would eat into the share of communities that are already in the ST category.