Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress

Mumbai Ahmedabad bullet train

Common Minimum Programme

Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway

Metro projects

Metro carshed

PM Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe had laid the foundation stone for the project in Ahmedabad in Sept 2017

MMRDA

Locals from Palghar, Thane, Nandurbar, Raigad, and Nashik have been protesting against the bullet train project.

If formed, thestate government plans to do away with one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most ambitious projects – the. Thearrived at by the three parties is pro-farmer, and hence this project is among some of the planned infrastructure projects that may be shelved.The issue was discussed in the meeting of Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena. Locals in the tribal areas of Thane district, whose lands will have to make way for the project, have been vehemently opposing the Rs 1 lakh crore project.A source present at recent Congress-NCP meetings said that the three parties have agreed on the Common Minimum Programme and it has given top priority to the crop loan waiver of farmers. “We will scrap the project considering opposition by farmers,” he said. Even though it is the Centre’s project, the state has to shell out Rs 40,000 crore for it, which the state can refuse to pay, he said. The money saved could be diverted to other welfare schemes for farmers. “An alignment change is another option to avoid the farmers’ wrath, but these are technical details,” he added.The Sena-NCP-Congress combine has already consulted government officials to know the current status of the project and legal clauses. A few other infrastructure projects were also discussed in the meetings like, ongoing, tree cutting at Aarey land for, the leader said.Last December, Mumbai Mirror had reported an RTI reply on the bullet train that revealed how the previous BJP-led government had set aside various objections by its own departments for the bullet train.One objection was from the urban development department about giving the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) land for the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train terminus, which the department said might lead to a revenue loss of Rs 48,000 crore. Thehad suggested that the railway ministry should have the bullet train terminus on their land at Dadar or Bandra. “The bullet train terminus would reduce the development potential of the land at BKC. This would affect the future availability of the projects of the MMRDA,’’ it had said.The bullet train was to cover 350 km distance in Gujarat and 150 km in Maharashtra. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is to provide a soft loan of Rs 88,000 crore for the project over 50 years.