Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) and the Thane civic body to reply to a construction firm’s petition against a notice to stop work on the land now reserved for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice N.H. Patil and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a petition filed by Atlanta Limited, challenging the notice issued on May 2 by the Thane Municipal Corporation, asking it to stop construction work on three hectares of land near Mumbra town in Thane district.
According to the notice, the building was coming up on the land reserved for the bullet train project spread across three districts of Maharashtra.
The petitioner’s counsel, advocate M.M. Vashi argued on Wednesday that their plot was not mentioned in the Thane Municipal Corporation's notice.
NHSRCL lawyer T.J. Pandian said it was a mistake, to which, the bench observed that the petitioner was suffering because of this “inadvertent mistake”.
The court directed the NHSRCL and the Thane Municipal Corporation to file their affidavits in response to the petition within a week.
According to the petition, the company had already constructed two residential towers on the land and work on the third tower was underway. Advocate Vashi said that the project had been issued a commencement certificate and all other requisite permissions had been taken.
The petition said that the company came across the public notice dated March 13 this year, wherein the Thane collector declared that the process to acquire land for the bullet train project was to be undertaken by NHSRCL. There was no mention of the construction firm’s land in the advertisement, the petition said.
