Mumbai: The Shinde-Fadnavis government has given all the necessary clearances to fast-track the Rs 1.1 lakh crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced this after the state cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The Free Press Journal had, on July 8, broken the news that the new government would soon decide on the handover of the 4.2 hectares of land in the Bandra-Kurla Complex for the construction of a terminal for the bullet train. Currently, there is a jumbo Covid care facility housed on the same land and the government has instructed the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Authority and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation to vacate the space soon. An alternative location will be provided to the petrol pump also on the plot earmarked for the bullet train terminus.
The cabinet’s decision is crucial, as the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government did not hand over the plot to the National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL).
A state urban development department official said that during the previous government, there was negligible movement though the process of land acquisition for the project had been undertaken in other parts of Maharashtra. “The NHSRCL had to cancel the tender issued in November 2019 for the construction of an underground terminus for the bullet train project in the BKC, as the state government did not hand over the land. The Fadnavis government had given its approval for the handover of the land in February 2018 but it was not done, despite reminders from the NHSRCL. However, the new government is keen on handing over the land and thereby give the much-needed push for the completion of the project,” he said.
The BKC is the starting point of this 508km-long high-speed rail line and the tunnels till Shilphata will be more than 21 kilometres long, thus forming a vital component of India’s first such project. Land acquisition has been a big issue for this project, especially in Maharashtra. Around 62 per cent of the land has been acquired in the state; as against this, in Gujarat more than 98 per cent of the land has been acquired and all five civil packages have been awarded. Of the total 508km-stretch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project, 348kms lie in Gujarat, 4kms in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and the remainder 156kms are in Maharashtra.
