SC clears hurdle for Bombay-Ahmedabad bullet train project, Godrej plea rejected

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the plea filed by Godrej & Boyce against the Bombay High Court order which refused to set aside the acquisition of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd’s 9.69 acre plot at Vikhroli for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

The matter was listed before a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala. The court ruled that while the petitioner was free to claim enhancement of compensation for the plot, his plea for acquisition of the plot for which possession had already been taken by the government and construction had already started, could not be entertained.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the petitioner, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the State of Maharashtra in the matter.

The Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed the plea by Godrej & Boyce challenging the acquisition of its land in Vikhroli for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and said that ‘larger public interest would prevail over private interest’.

The company and the government have been in a legal dispute since 2019 over the acquisition of company-owned land in suburban Vikhroli for the bullet train project being carried out in collaboration with Japan.

Of the total 508.17 km railway track between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, about 21 km is planned to be underground. One of the entry points to the underground tunnel falls on the land at Vikhroli owned by the Godrej group.

This will be the country’s first bullet train and will run at a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, covering the stretch between the two cities in under three hours down from seven hours at present.

It will be India’s first high-speed rail line and will transform the passenger transport system of the country with state-of-the-art technology for the benefit of the public at large, it said and added that once functional, the train would serve 17,900 passengers every day.

“The total cost of the project is about Rs 1 lakh crore.