Bullet train project: Godrej moves court against land acquisition in Mumbai

About 7,000 farmers, 15,000 families, and 60,000 people are already on the list of probable land losers for the Rs 1.08-trillion bullet train project. A good number of them have joined the ranks of protesters, too. These dissenting voices have now been joined by the Godrej Group, which has approached the Bombay High Court against the acquisition of its prime property at Vikhroli area, worth over Rs 5 billion. 

If Godrej does not agree to the acquisition, the authorities will have to either change the track alignment or forcibly acquire the land based on the Maharashtra Land Acquisition Act of 2013. 

The company is seeking a change in the project alignment, so that nearly 3.5 hectares, or 8.6 acres, belonging to its infrastructure arm Godrej Constructions gets out of the project route map, said a government official. The company spokesperson did not respond to queries.

Based on the current alignment, of the total 508.17 km track between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, around 21 km will be underground in Maharashtra. 

One of the entry points to the underground tunnel is likely to be from Godrej land. A team of officials from the National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) and Japan’s Kawasaki Geological Engineering have already kicked off initial work on the tunnel starting from Bandra-Kurla Complex, where the terminal station will be housed. 

More than 50 per cent of this underground tunnel will be passing through the green belt — including the Thane creek, under the seabed, and marshland areas with mangroves. According to industry sources, land prices in Vikhroli area hover at Rs 550-650 million per acre. 

“In acquisition of agricultural land, the compensation goes up to five times the value of the land. In corporate-owned land, compensation structures are different. We have to study the zone the land falls under. Godrej owns different types of land. We have to study whether it is a no-development zone, salt pan land or mangroves,” said Gulam Zia, executive director at property consultant Knight Frank.

The project, which was going slow, picked up pace after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the project in his 26th interaction through Pragati — the ICT based multi-modal platform for proactive governance — held on May 23. He directed the railways to address public grievances on the bullet train project with immediate effect.

This was after widespread protests against the project in Maharashtra and Gujarat, led by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Shiv Sena, Congress, and the Left parties who joined hands with farmers. This had reportedly raised concerns from Japan, which is financing the project through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). 

JICA is likely to sign a loan agreement of Rs 880 billion with India after an appraisal mission evaluation set to take place this month. So far, the two countries have signed a loan agreement for only Rs 6 billion.

The Prime Minister’s Office has directed the NHSRCL to complete the land acquisition process by December 2018, start construction by January 2019, and finish it by the first half of 2022. Only a small parcel of 0.9 hectare in BKC has so far been acquired. 

While protests are still on in areas like Dahanu, authorities claim their intervention and talks with locals after Pragati helped assuage concerns in many of the 300 villages. 

Based on the memorandum of understanding with Japan, the railways is doing the social impact assessment, while JICA will be conducting the environment impact study.