Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train: Land acquisition complete in Gujarat, says NHSRCL

The completion of land acquisition comes two years after 100 per cent of the 7.9 hectares was acquired in the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli in September 2021. The Government of India had initially targeted to finish land acquisition by December 2018 and operationalise bullet trains between the two destinations by 2023.

According to NHSRCL, the last parcel of land to be acquired in Gujarat was at Kathore village in Surat district (4.99 hectares) in September 2023. Among the five districts in Gujarat, Surat contributed 160.51 hectares — the highest for the project. The highest number of private plots were in Bharuch (1,057).

The Indian Express had in May 2023 reported that NHSRCL had already paid Rs 6,104 crore as compensation for 6,248 private land parcels in Gujarat. The compensation figures for the acquisition of all 6,336 land parcels in the state were not immediately available.

NHSRCL stated that 99.83 per cent of land acquisition in neighbouring Maharashtra has also been completed. The land acquisition in Maharashtra had slowed down considerably after Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister in November 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe had laid the foundation stone for the Rs 1.1 lakh crore project at Sabarmati in Ahmedabad in September 2017. The land acquisition process began a couple of months later and was met with opposition from farmers in Gujarat demanding a higher compensation. NHSRCL later revised the compensation package to be paid to private land owners.