German NRI woman is first to hand over land

Vadodara: A Germany-based NRI woman has become the first woman to give her land for the ambitious Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.
Savita Ray, whose roots are in Chansad village of Vadodara’s Padra taluka, had shifted to Germany 28 years back after marriage. On Thursday, when the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is implementing the national high speed rail corridor project, starting disbursement of compensation to the land owners, Savita, became the first lady to give her land for NHSRCL.

The 75-year-old lady, who was bequeathed this land from her maternal side, specially flew down to Vadodara, nearly a month-and-a-half back to complete the process of handing over land for the project. Although the compensation amount for the small plot she has received comes to just Rs 30,234, NHSRCL officials are upbeat as the NRI lady will go down in the history for being first woman to hand over her land by consent.

After her marriage with Mahesh Ray, who had his roots in Makarpura area of Vadodara, Savita, a class ten pass-out, had moved to Germany. “My husband who had retired from government hospital in Germany, passed away last year,” Savita, a homemaker told TOI.

Her son manages a hotel in Germany. “I was informed by my relatives that I need to sign the documents for transfer of my land for the bullet train project,” she told TOI.

Chansad, the village known for being birthplace of BAPS spiritual leader late Pramukh Swami Maharaj, had become the first village of Gujarat where the villagers had expressed their readiness to part away their land based on consent awards. NHSRCL had recently also organized a consent camp at Chansad during which formal agreement for land acquisition were signed.

There are 45 private plots measuring 16 hectares in Chansad for which NHSRCL will provide a total of Rs 60 crore as compensation. On Thursday, NHSRCL acquired the first parcels of seven plots, measuring 1.57 hectares, for which Rs 8.44 crore compensation has been disbursed.