Railway minister Mamata Banerjee has forced Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation Limited (DFCCIL) to return to the drawing table to change the alignment of ambitious freight corridors and reduce acquisition of farm land.
The re-alignment is restricted to Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, for which DFCCIL is arranging monetary and land resources. The remaining four corridors are still at the concept stage and hence remain out of Banerjee?s diktat on re-alignment. DFCCIL is an SPV formed by Indian Railways to construct six exclusive rail paths for freight movement.
Banerjee has issued the direction to back her opposition to the proposed amendment in Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The Centre is trying to form a consensus over reducing government role in land acquisition for private projects to only 30%. But the railway minister says the government should not acquire any land for private parties.
The minister also believes acquisition of farm land should be kept at a bare minimum and instead Railways? land should be used for rail projects. Railways has already released 24,000 acre out of its land bank of 1.13 lakh acre for the rail corridor project.
DFCCIL has ordered re-survey of certain stretches of the two corridors. ?The feasibility is being studied. Our effort is to bring the alignment as close to the railway land as possible. The land that we have already acquired will be used for the corridors. However, there will be no infringement of farm land in the future,? DFCCIL managing director SK Malik told FE.
The entity expects that the re-alignment activity will not escalate the total cost of the two corridors, currently pegged at over Rs 76,783 crore excluding the cost of land. ?Railway land will not cost us. In addition, we will not need to incur cost on building access roads. I think the saving on these counts will more or less set off the cost incurred on re-survey and the feasibility study,? Malik said. The cost of the two corridors has more than doubled since they were conceived in 2005. Banerjee has been against acquisition of farm land in the past too. She was the main force behind the agitation in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal against land acquisition for industrial use.
Earlier this month, she did not attend the meeting called by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to create a common stand among ministers on amendment in the Land Acquisition Act. Justifying her move, she said on October 27: ?I am against forcible land acquisition. Land acquisition law is a draconian law and it is not only me but everybody has said so.?