Farmers hold protest rally against Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project in Gujarat's Navsari; concerns include depletion of green belt

Navsari: Farmers from 29 villages in Navsari held a protest rally against bullet train project on Wednesday. Around 2,000 protestors submitted the memorandum to an official in this regard. In the memorandum, 14 concerns have been raised against the bullet train project. [caption id=“attachment_2822808” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of a bullet train. Reuters[/caption] Farmer leader Jayesh Patel said that the land which the government plans to acquire is a green belt. He added, “Around 2 lakh trees will be cut for this. We do not want the green zone to be disturbed.” In June 2018, Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had said India’s ambitious bullet train project is likely to be completed by 2022, a year ahead of its estimated deadline, which is December 2023. On 6 May, Japan’s Parliamentary Vice-Minister Akimoto Masatoshi inspected the sites for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train and the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro rail projects, respectively. The bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai will run a total length of 508 km, of which 21 kilometres will be covered in the tunnel under the sea. The cost of the tunnel is estimated at Rs 3,500 crores. The cost of the total train project is Rs 1.10 trillion, and Japan is giving a loan of Rs 88,000 crores for the same at a minimal interest of 0.1 per cent, which has to be repaid over 50 years.