Railways bags 1st land parcel, given up by NRI, in Gujarat for bullet train

An NRI octogenarian from Germany handed over her ancestral land in Gujarat for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, making it the first stretch of land to be acquired by the national transporter in the state for the project, an NHSRCL official said Friday. 

Savita Ben, who runs an Indian restaurant in Germany, is originally from Chansad village and she shifted abroad 33 years ago after getting married, the official told PTI. 

She had around 71 acres of land in the Chansad area and gave 11.94 hectare to the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) at a cost of Rs 30,234.3.

"She flew down specially to hand over the land for the project and we are extremely grateful to her for having agreed to it. She returned to Germany where she lives with her son and runs a restaurant."

"This stretch of land is the first piece of land which we have acquired for the project in the state," NHSRCL spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said.

The 508-kilometre corridor would require around 1,400 hectares of land in Gujarat and Maharashtra, of which 1,120 hectares is privately owned. Around 6,000 land-owners will have to be compensated.

Currently, the NHSRCL has managed to acquire only 0.09 per cent of land in Mumbai for the project and has been dealing with protests across the two states over land acquisition issues.

The railways is now conducting consent camps in districts where it needs land to convince farmers to give up their land.