The Centre has said no land acquisition requisition has been sent to state governments for three proposed high-speed rail corridors linked to Hyderabad, warning that any acquisition carried out in their name at this stage would be illegal. The clarification comes as land acquisition efforts by the Telangana government have faced resistance from farmers on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy said on Saturday that alignment studies for the proposed Hyderabad–Chennai, Hyderabad–Bengaluru and Hyderabad–Pune high-speed rail corridors are still underway. He said he discussed the projects with Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw before issuing the clarification.
According to Reddy, Vaishnaw confirmed that the Railway Ministry had not sent any land acquisition requisition to the respective state governments. Reddy quoted the minister as saying that any land acquisition being carried out in the name of high-speed rail at this stage is illegal.
The statement places the immediate status of land-related action ahead of the projects’ final alignment. The Centre said the alignment studies for all three corridors are currently in progress. The proposed routes have not yet been finalised in the information available in the statement.
Reddy said the Railways would share details with the concerned state governments and farmers once the alignments are finalised. That process is expected to establish the land requirements and the areas that could be affected by the corridors, although no timeline for completing the studies was provided.
The clarification follows land acquisition activity by the Telangana government linked to the rail corridor and other projects. The reported efforts have met resistance from farmers in areas around Hyderabad, bringing the question of prior communication and project status into focus.
For residents and landowners in the affected outskirts, the Centre’s position means that the proposed corridors have not yet reached the stage at which state-level land acquisition can be treated as authorised by a Railway Ministry requisition. It also distinguishes the ongoing technical exercise of studying possible alignments from the later administrative process of identifying and acquiring land.
The three proposed corridors would connect Hyderabad with Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune. However, the statement did not provide route maps, station locations, project costs, construction schedules or an implementation timeline. It also did not specify which parcels or districts may have been considered in the land acquisition efforts.
The next formal step, according to the clarification, is the completion of the alignment studies. The Railways will then communicate the finalised alignment details to the respective state governments and farmers.
