Bullet train: New govt in Maharashtra clears path for acquisition of land

The new Maharashtra government, under Eknath Shinde in partnership with the BJP, has also given the crucial forest clearance for land acquisition, a mandatory step, which was stuck at the state government’s level for the last two years. The Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change has subsequently given its approval for using forest land for the project.

The new Maharashtra government has also signed the shareholder agreement with implementing agency, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited recently.

Acquisition of around 200 hectares in Maharashtra, part of the total 1396 hectares, including in Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was stalled under the previous Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena government in alliance with the NCP and the Congress. The Shiv Sena had also been politically opposed to the land acquisition.

Land acquisition of approximately 1000 hectares in Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, is complete. The government has said that of total land requirement of approximately 1396 hectares, 1264 hectares have been acquired.

However, land across the alignment is divided into 7,000 plots, in 195 villages in Gujarat and 104 villages in Maharashtra. So for the construction to begin in Maharashtra, getting physical possession of all the required land is crucial to progress.

Key civil works have begun– Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tweeted the picture of first kilometre of viaduct of the project constructed in Gujarat.

The project also recently floated its civil tender in Maharashtra which includes design and construction of Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex High Speed Rail Station. Bids are scheduled to open on Oct 20, 2022.

Officials said that the state government’s land acquisition work has picked up pace on the ground as well, especially in areas like Palghar and Dahanu in coastal Maharashtra, considered traditional Shiv Sena bastions.

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The delay in the land acquisition in Maharashtra coupled with the pandemic pushed the overall commissioning date of the entire project by at least five years and resulted in cost overrun. As per the original estimate based on 2015 valuation, the total project cost around Rs 1.10 lakh crore. The cost, sources said, might have escalated to around 1.65 lakh crore.

Parallelly, Railways has also started working on the feasibility of the proposed Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train. The cost of the 753-km alignment is turning out to be around Rs 300 crore per km.

Efforts are on to align the route along the upcoming Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, a greenfield, six-lane expressway between Mumbai and Nagpur. This is one of the seven proposed bullet train projects of the future.