After facing land acquisition hurdles in Maharashtra for more than three years, the country’s first high-speed or bullet train project appears back on track, after a new government came to power in the state in June 2022. The progress is welcome after the sharp slowdown in the pace of work witnessed during the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s 31-month tenure from November 2019, which often led to speculation that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, already three years behind schedule, might get delayed further. Thackeray had gone on record criticising the high-profile project, and questioned its benefits.
However, one challenge remains: the state’s bid to acquire 9.69 acres of land belonging to Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. in Mumbai’s Vikhroli has not yet come through. In a plea filed with the Bombay High Court, the company has described the move as “illegal and bad in law”. Challenging the state’s civil suit, it has questioned an amendment to the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, exempting the project from social impact assessment and described the Rs 264-crore compensation offered as “inadequate”, compared to the Rs 572 crore proposed earlier. Since 2019, the state government and the company have been locked in a bitter dispute over the land that is proposed to be developed as an entry point to the underground part of the project.
Opposing the Godrej & Boyce petition on behalf of the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) and the Central government, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the High Court bench of Justice R.D. Dhanuka and Justice M.M. Sathaye that the delay had resulted in a cost escalation of up to Rs 1,000 crore.
The High Court bench finished hearing arguments on December 26 and will be pronouncing its judgement after its winter break.
“Supreme Court data shows nearly two-thirds of all disputes related to land acquisition involve contest to the calculation and payment of the actual market value for the land, whether in terms of the principle on which such calculation was made, or the way it was paid, or both. In addition to that, there are a large number of opponents who challenge the legitimacy of the land acquisition or procedural lapses,” points out Subhankar Mitra, MD (Advisory Services) of real estate advisory Colliers International India.
An analyst with another real estate services firm, requesting anonymity, says that for infrastructure projects involving land acquisition in urban areas, the Central government needs to come up with a compensatory mechanism that factors in time value of money, and not just the value of the underlying asset at a point in time. “Aggressive compensation mechanisms like Transfer of Development Rights (TDR), the value of which can grow over a period of time, and entitlements towards premium floor space index (FSI) with incremental value can be offered as solutions. For these, the Central and state governments need to work in tandem,” the person suggests.
Gathering steam
Following the swearing in of the BJP-backed Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde in June 2022, not only land acquisition, but also the tendering activity has gone up significantly in Maharashtra. Till November-end, 98.22 per cent of land had been acquired in the western state for the project compared to 71.5 per cent on June 30, reveals an analysis of the data shared by NHSRCL—a special purpose vehicle of the Indian Railways—with BT.
In Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the figure stands at 98.87 and 100 per cent, respectively, for November. Of the 508-km corridor, 156 km of the track lies in Maharashtra, 4 km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 348 km in Gujarat. In addition, all contracts have been awarded in Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli for civil works, bridges and tracks for the construction of viaducts, other bridges, stations and tracks for the entire alignment.
Launched in September 2017 by PM Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, late Shinzo Abe, the project was expected to be completed by 2023. However, due to delays in land acquisition in Maharashtra and the pandemic, the deadline was extended. The trial run of the first bullet train is planned on the 50-km stretch between Surat and Bilimora in 2026. Financial bids for the design and construction of the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) station of the corridor were opened on December 29. “The financial bids of three technically qualified bidders were opened on December 29, with Megha Engineering & Infrastructures and Hindustan Construction Company JV quoting the lowest bid,” an NHSRCL spokesperson told BT.
Technical bids will be opened for evaluation of tenders filed for the double line (21 km) between BKC station and Shilphata in January. Tenders were also invited for civil and building works involving viaduct, bridges, tunnel, maintenance depot with three stations of Thane, Virar and Boisar, and some connecting works for Thane Depot between Shilphata and Zaroli village on the Gujarat-Maharashtra border (135 km) on November 15 that will be opened for evaluation on March 15.
Despite the challenges, observers continue to remain bullish about the project. “It is important that this project gets followed by future corridors getting developed so that a high-speed rail network emerges over the next decade. A faster and cleaner mode of transportation like the bullet train will lay a sustainable foundation for a growing economy like India,” says Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Director & Practice Leader for Transport & Logistics at CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory.
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