Indian Railways bullet train in trouble; Govt scrambles to get PM Modi pet project on track

Indian Railways bullet train project has the potential to change the face of rail travel in India. However, it has many critics over the costs involved and some have dubbed it as elitist and not what India needs at the moment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious bullet train project has been caught in a logjam for long. Land acquisition for the Bullet train project has been stalled in some stretches due to farmers' protest. The Indian Railways has reportedly decided to make a transparent the compensation mechanism for farmers, landowners for the first time. They had threatened not to part with their land.

The Indian Railways will provide landowners not just a lump sum amount but a detailed breakup of their compensation now. This will bring transparency in compensation payments. The farmers will now get a complete view of the price they are going to get for their land. The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) is conducting a survey to ascertain how much land will be required and the other aspects of the project.

"We have decided to be more transparent and after the surveys provide landowners of every aspect of their compensation - how much land we are taking, how much is the land worth and other aspects based on which he will be paid," PTI quoted an official of NHSRCL as saying. The official said the farmers can get back to the authority with either their objection or approval within 15 days, of the compensation matrix. Railway has never made public such details for any other project.

According to the report, NHSRCL will disclose compensation mechanism starting from Palgarh district of Maharashtra. For 508 km bullet train project, it has Rs 10,000 crore as land acquisition cost. The bullet train project is expected to complete by 2022.