The proposed Bahadurpally bullet train station in Telangana has come under opposition from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which has urged the government to use existing government-owned land near Rajiv Gandhi International Airport instead of acquiring agricultural land from farmers.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao made the demand while addressing farmers from Bahadurpally village whose land, according to the report, was sought for the project. He said the party was not opposed to the bullet train project itself but would not support the acquisition of farm land when alternative government-owned land was available.
Rama Rao questioned the reported requirement to acquire around 1,000 acres for the proposed station. He said a substantially smaller area could be sufficient and pointed to unused land near the airport as an alternative. The report said the airport had involved the acquisition of around 5,500 acres, part of which Rama Rao suggested could be considered for the rail project.
The dispute places the proposed station within a wider land-use question: whether major transport infrastructure should be located on agricultural land when public land is available nearby. The BRS has said the government should examine land already under public ownership before proceeding with acquisition from farmers.
Rama Rao also alleged that the proposed acquisition could enable real estate interests linked to Congress leaders. That allegation was made by him while addressing the farmers and was not independently established in the supplied report. The BRS has asked farmers not to sign away their land and said it would continue supporting their legal challenge.
The party said the legal battle could include approaching the Supreme Court if necessary. The report did not provide details of the acquisition notification, compensation terms, the precise station design, the agency responsible for the project or the government’s response to the objections.
For affected landowners, the immediate issue is whether the proposed acquisition will proceed and what alternatives the government will examine. For the project, the dispute could make land availability and site selection central to the next stage of planning. The government’s position on the availability of airport-adjacent land and the formal status of the proposed station remains to be clarified.
