Summary:
The bullet train will run at a speed of 320-350 kmph. There will be 12 stations across the 500-km stretch.For the project, around 1,400 hectares of land will be acquired in Gujarat and Maharashtra, 1,120 hectares of which is privately owned. Around 6,000 land owners will have to be compensated. AHMEDABAD: As many as 40 new petitions have been filed in the Gujarat high court by farmers challenging the land acquisition process for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project A division bench of chief justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi is likely to hear the petitions on Thursday along with similar pleas submitted in June this year.The 40 petitions have been filed even as four pleas of farmers from Antroli village in Surat district were withdrawn recently.A station for the bullet train is planned to be constructed in this village. "It (the Gujarat Amendment Act 2016) gives unbridled and unfettered powers to the state government to exempt any project in public interest from the social impact assessment (SIA)," they said.The state government, in its reply, said since the width of the land to be acquired for the project is just 17.5 metres, the resettlement issues are minimal.The Central government, however, is yet to file a detailed affidavit in the matter.The ambitious bullet train project was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in September last year..