The much hyped first bullet train project of India is moving at a snail’s pace defying the very idea of the launch. Even after a year, when the project was started, till now only 0.9 hectares of land have been acquired out of the total 1,400 hectares needed for it, as per the government company running the project. The much-touted project with a proposed investment of about USD 15 billion, which highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approach towards upgrading infrastructure, is now being blocked by the resistance of farmers who did not find the compensation fulfilling for the land taken away from them.
“Land acquisition is a very common problem in India and many projects are delayed, there’s no question about that,” said Raghbendra Jha, an economics professor at the Australian National University. “I’ve seen many instances like this.”
The protests being held by the farmers showcase the challenge Prime Minister Modi facing to implement his big projects across railways, ports and airports to make India’s position noticeable as the fastest growing economy.
“The project is very high-level and highly visible, publicity-wise,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst and author of a biography on PM Modi. “If people are beginning to protest, this is going to undermine Mr. Modi’s image as someone who can implement things very seamlessly.”
The project was seen as a big victory for the suppliers from Japan for the bullet train. Among them are the East Japan Railway Co., Hitachi Ltd. And Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., who saw it as a big victory over China’s Siemens AG and Bombardier Inc. India became a rare buyer for the Shinkansen after marketing done for years on an international level.
The project was affecting farmers and consequently a group from them petitioned the Gujarat High Court, which has asked the government to come up with its stance over the plea on November 22, according to court documents. As per the documents of the plea, the farmers have also questioned the government’s power to enable the acquiring of the farm land for the purpose of public-private partnership projects.
Earlier to that, the courts had refused to put the land acquisition process on hold.
According to the National High-Speed Rail Corporation, the prime builder of the project, there were no funding gaps despite having a delay in land acquisition for the purpose. The spokesman of the company, Dhananjay Kumar, said that the date of operation for the project will be in August 2022, which will be an year before the target for its completion officially. The company is “committed to take care of the interests of the affected farmers,” he said.
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