It is a mission of sorts for the government to get on board nine Maharashtra villages that are delaying the entire 508-km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. An agency is now being hired to resolve the roadblocks in the land acquisition process for India’s first high-speed train corridor project. The country’s second high-speed train project from Delhi to Varanasi could also be announced in the upcoming Union Budget.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad project has been delayed due to tough resistance from tribals in nine villages in Maharashtra’s Palghar district in giving up their land. Around 285 hectares of land is yet to be acquired in Maharashtra, mainly in Palghar, while land acquisition is complete in Gujarat and work has begun on 342 km.
“The revised timeline for completion of the project can be fixed after the acquisition of complete land in Maharashtra,” the government told Parliament last week. Sources say the government will announce a second bullet train project from Delhi to Varanasi in the upcoming Budget.
The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has now floated a tender to appoint an agency or a consultant for “Communication Management and Facilitation in Land Acquisition for Palghar district” under which falls an 108km stretch of the bullet train project.
The agency is expected to communicate details of the project and “its offering or benefits from the government to the stakeholders and communicate back to NHSRCL the pain points or responses of the stakeholders”. The agency will also assist NHSRCL and the Maharashtra government in facilitating the various activities in land acquisition for the project.
This will involve taking consent of Gram Sabha in the nine villages in question who “are to be persistently persuaded and convinced to agree for the project and to give consent for the project”, the document says. All nine villages come under the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act.
The agency will also be responsible for “taking peaceful possession of the land disbursement” and convince the land owners to accept compensation willingly. “Without disbursement and accepting the compensation to full satisfaction, possession may be given by district administration on paper but it is not possible to take peaceful and encumbrance free possession on ground,” the document says.
The agency will also coordinate and facilitate meetings with various authorities in connection with activities required to complete land acquisition, and deal with the non-tille holders issue as well in the villages.
A team will be deployed for ground communications at village level and daily visits will be made to all villages covered in the projects. “The agency will handle communication with various stakeholders like land owners, government officials, people’s representatives, opinion makers, media, etc. which need to be communicated properly about the project on a regular basis,” the tender document has mentioned.
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