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An NRI octogenarian hailing from Germany has handed over her ancestral plot in Gujarat for the upcoming Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. It was incidentally the first stretch of land to be acquired by the Railways in the state for the project, an NHSRCL official said on Friday.
Savita Ben who around 71 acres of land in Gujarat's Chansad area handed over 11.94 hectare to the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) at a cost of Rs 30234.30. Ben who runs an Indian restaurant in Germany had shifted from Chansad to abroad 33 years ago after getting married, the official told PTI.
"She flew down specially to hand over the land for the project and we are extremely grateful to her for having agreed to it. She returned to Germany where she lives with her son and runs a restaurant.
"This stretch of land is the first piece of land which we have acquired for the project in the state," NHSRCL spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said.
The 508-kilometre corridor would require around 1,400 hectares of land in Gujarat and Maharashtra, of which 1,120 hectares is privately owned. Around 6,000 land owners will have to be compensated.
Currently, the NHSRCL has managed to acquire only 0.09 per cent of land in Mumbai for the project and has been dealing with protests across the two states over land acquisition issues.
