When in last September 2017 PM Modi’s Rs 98,000 crore bullet train project was launched with fanfare, everyone welcomed the move. The project was supposed to be completed by 2022, but the recent land acquisition problem in Maharashtra has made all doubtful about the entire project.

With the backing of the opposition parties, the project has been getting stiff resistance from the local people in the Palghar district. They have strongly opposed the project and refused to sign their land over to the government for the project.

Tribal people living around the vicinity of the proposed rail corridor comprising 70 villages of the Palghar district have refused to give their land over to the authority.

It is to be noted that last month about 1,000 tribal farmers, under the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan, hailing from Raigad, Palghar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Thane, Nashik, Vidarbha, Konkan, Dahanu, Gadchiroli and Nandurbar held a protest rally at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. They were totally against the ongoing forceful land acquisition by the BJP government.

The joint India-Japan bullet train passed through three states- Gujarat, Maharashtra and Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The project requires around 1,400 hectares of land. Of the total cost of the project, Rs 88,000 crore will be a soft loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The total length of this rail corridor is 508.17 km. of which 350.530 km passes through Gujarat and 155.642 km in Maharashtra, and 2 Km in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The project requires 850 hectares of land from Gujarat and 353 hectares from Maharashtra. Due to the project around 73 villages are supposed to be affected. Of these 50 villages have agreed to come into negotiation and the remaining 23 villages resisting.

Sources from railway ministry say that government is offering five times the circle rate of land as compensation to people whose land is being acquired. An official of by the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC), said that these tribal people are not willing to hand over the land and they are instigated by the local political parties to gain narrow selfish interest.

Raj Thackeray of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) even urged the farmers of Maharashtra not to cede their land for the Bullet train project. If the resistance in the land acquisition process continues the project would never be completed.