Mumbai: 12 bullet points to make high-speed train a reality

Setting up a new medical unit at Viratan Khurd was one of the ways the bullet train team had tried to win the villagers over. File pic

Palghar seems to have hit the brakes on the bullet train project yet again, with political parties allegedly turning villagers against the project. So far, the authorities have spared neither money nor effort in their attempts to acquire land, but it seems they have not tried the most basic approach: directly approaching land owners and clearing their doubts.

The Palghar collector's office has now issued a 12-point letter to bullet train authorities to take a more direct and personal approach while wooing the land owners, like the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) had done for the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway.

The problem
Villagers have refused to part with their to give up their land amid rumours that they will be displaced from their homes altogether. The bullet train will pass through 73 villages in Palghar, but the measurement survey has only been completed in 30 of these hamlets. The remaining 43 villages have not allowed officials to survey the land since June, sending the entire project off-track.

The bullet train team had made some headway with villagers after building them medical centres and schools

This paper had reported in August and September that the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) had managed to win some villagers over by offering to provide long-pending facilities such as medical centres, schools and regular water supply - this is in addition to compensating them with up to four or five times the value of the land. But despite putting in so much money and effort, the NHSRCL has not won the locals' confidence.

Sources said this was because political parties and activists with vested interests were spreading rumours and pitting the locals against the bullet train project. MNS leader Raj Thackeray has allegedly warned the villagers against giving any land to the bullet train team, and his party has even threatened and manhandled senior officials.

"Yes. There has been a lot of mischief happening at the local level, and we feel that this may delay the ambitious project. It is important to note that most of the landowners who will be affected are talking to us directly, and do not seem to have a problem. It is the other villagers who don't own land who are floating stories and creating confusion. Much of the protest and opposition has a political flavour, which I do not want to get into," said a local NHSRCL official.

The solution?
The local collector's office recently issued a 12-point letter (mid-day has a copy) to NHSRCL, suggesting that the project could pick up momentum if a proper team of officials is placed on the field to clear any questions the villagers may have, coordinate with various agencies and offices and follow up on the project.

The collector's office cited the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway, for which the MSRDC acquired land by conducting regular field visits and inteactions with local officials and land owners, leaving the farmers with completely satisfied, with no doubts.

The letter further stated: "However, it is observed that NHSRCL is fully dependent on an agency appointed by your office. The said agency has total staff of 12 community representatives, two talathis, one circle officer, two associate consultants and two typists. The NHSRCL officials are only of supervisory category. This matter needs serious attention at the earliest." The letter also added that the project needs to rope in a PR agency to combat the rumours floated by activists and political parties who are against the bullet train.

While Dhananjay Kumar, NHSRCL's official spokesperson, refused to comment, Dahanu Mayor Bharat Rajput said it was now for the local government to step in and conduct face-to-face meetings with the project-affected people (PAPs) directly. "It is important to take the villagers into confidence in order to take the project ahead. As far as I know, there are superficial elements that are trying to destabilise the whole thing."

Rumour-busting
Addressing rumours that the villagers would be displaced and all their land taken, an NHSRCL official said, "We do not require much land, since the railway line is 15 m high up on a viaduct. Only 17.5 m or 60 feet of land is required to put in the pillars. This 60-foot stretch will have a service road below for maintenance of trains. This service road will become a public road and the villagers will be able to use it."

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