Bullet train row: Big boost for PM Modi's pet project

After a month-long tussle over a piece of land, which was needed for the proposed Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, the matter seems to be inching towards an amicable end, as the National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that the alternate land proposed by the Godrej Group is prima facie found to be suitable for acquisition for the bullet train project. The bullet train is one of PM Narendra Modi's pet infrastructural projects.   

If their proposal made to the NHSRCL to acquire an alternate land parcel is accepted the alignment of the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train would not change, Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company told the court. State goverment, however, told the court that the ‘title’ of the first land parcel suggested by the company turned out to be a disputed property, according to a PTI report. 

The court has asked the state government department concerned to verify the second proposal. “This land should not turn out to be embroiled in some legal dispute also,” a division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Girish Kulkarni said, posting the matter for further hearing on September 3. Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company's property is in suburban Vikhroli. It challenged the proposed acquisition in the court and suggested an alternate plot of land for the proposed high-speed bullet train project. 

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The company has sought a direction to the concerned authorities to change the project’s alignment.