Gujarat to double farmers' compensation for bullet train

The Gujarat government Thursday announced the doubling of compensation for farmers whose agricultural land situated in urban areas will be acquired for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor.

As per the Union government's prevailing compensation rates for land acquisition, landowners in rural areas get four times the market rate while the same is two times the market rate for agricultural land parcels falling in Urban Development Authorities (UDAs) and Area Development Authorities(ADAs).

Gujarat Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel Thursday said that the state government had decided that farmers having their land under UDAs or ADAs would also get four times the market rate like their rural counterparts.

"We have taken this decision to expedite the land acquisition process for the bullet train project. Now, villages which fall in urban regions would also be entitled to get compensation four times the market rate" said Patel. In addition, the farmers would also get an additional 25 percent "bonus" on the compensation amount agreed by the farmers and acquiring authority, he added.

The minister said that the process to acquire 681 hectares of land spread across eight districts for the project was going on in full swing.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed railway project currently faces land acquisition hurdles in several parts of the state and farmers have also approached Gujarat High Court over it.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project is being executed by the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited, a special purpose vehicle of the Railways and the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The 508-kilometer corridor would require around 1,400 hectares of land in Gujarat and Maharashtra, 1,120 hectares of which is privately owned. Around 6,000 landowners will have to be compensated.

(With inputs from agencies.)