Meja tehsil: Centre notifies rail land acquisition, claims open

The Centre has notified the acquisition of land across six villages in Meja tehsil of Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district for the 150-km Prayagraj-Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay third-line railway project. The Ministry of Railways’ notification S.O. 5699(E), dated 15 October 2026 and published in the Gazette of India on 19 October 2026, declares that the scheduled land will vest in the Central Government upon publication. ^[1]

Issued through North Central Railway’s Construction Department, the notification also gives people with an interest in the land 20 days from publication to submit claims before the designated acquisition authority. It follows an earlier declaration of the government’s intention to acquire the land and the disposal of objections, according to the ministry. ^[1]

The development is an acquisition declaration for the specified land in Meja, rather than an announcement that the entire railway project has been completed. The ministry identifies the purpose as the execution, maintenance, management and operation of the third-line project. ^[1]

From acquisition proposal to transfer of ownership

The October notification records the preceding steps. The Ministry of Railways issued the initial acquisition-intention notification, S.O. 4328(E), on 27 July 2026. That notification appeared in the Gazette of India on 4 August 2026, according to the latest declaration. ^[1]

The ministry says the substance of the initial notification was subsequently published in Amar Ujala and The Times of India on 9 August 2026. These newspaper notices formed part of the publication procedure cited under Section 20A(4). ^[1]

According to the October declaration, the competent authority disposed of all objections received for the project and submitted its report to the Central Government. The declaration does not describe the objections or explain how individual representations were decided. Its statement that objections were disposed of should therefore not be read as evidence that every affected person agreed to the acquisition. ^[1]

The Centre then invoked Section 20E(1) to declare that the land in the attached schedule would be acquired. Under the notification’s Section 20E(2) clause, publication transfers the scheduled land absolutely to the Central Government, free from encumbrances – legal burdens on the property. ^[1]

These are distinct stages in the railway acquisition framework. The Railways Act, 1989 lists the power to acquire land under Section 20A, hearing of objections under Section 20D and declaration of acquisition under Section 20E. Its subsequent provisions separately address compensation determination, deposit and payment, and possession. ^[2]

Claims invited before Prayagraj acquisition officer

The ministry identifies the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Prayagraj (Irrigation), as the competent authority for the Meja land. In this process, the competent authority is the designated official before whom interested persons can present their claims. ^[1]

The notification says claims may be submitted at that authority’s office personally, through an agent or through a legal practitioner. It cites Section 20F(4) for this invitation and measures the submission period from publication, not from the earlier date printed alongside the notification’s heading. ^[1]

The claims process is separate from the objections stage that the ministry says has already concluded. The Railways Act places Section 20F under the determination of compensation payable, while Section 20H addresses deposit and payment of the amount. The acquisition declaration therefore should not be treated as confirmation that compensation has already reached affected landholders. ^[1][2]

The ministry’s land schedule distinguishes the type of ownership from the nature of the land and records acquisition areas in hectares. The entries include private agricultural land as well as government land, including a village path and land classified as barren. The acquisition consequently extends beyond privately cultivated holdings. ^[1]

Earlier acquisitions for the same railway corridor

The Meja declaration follows earlier Ministry of Railways acquisition notifications for the same 150-km project in Prayagraj district. A notification dated 26 October 2023, S.O. 4718(E), covered scheduled land in six villages of Karchhana tehsil. It likewise declared acquisition after the competent authority had disposed of objections and submitted its report. ^[3]

A later notification, S.O. 898(E), dated 19 February 2025, covered four villages in Karchhana tehsil. Its schedule recorded a total acquisition area of 0.3150 hectares across Ghoredeeh, Mahuari ta. Lawayan, Kachari and Kataka. ^[4]

Those documents concern separate scheduled parcels. Their existence establishes that land acquisition for the corridor preceded the Meja notification; it does not establish that every parcel required for the full project has now been acquired. ^[1][4][3]

Why the special-project procedure matters

The Railway Board has previously directed the use of the railway acquisition framework for time-bound infrastructure work. In a letter dated 21 February 2020 to the general managers of all Indian Railways, the Board said land for projects requiring completion within a specified period should be acquired under the Railways Act by declaring them special railway projects. ^[5]

That letter superseded the Board’s instructions dated 22 November 2017. The earlier wording referred to projects with assured funding as well as a specified completion period; the replacement instruction retained the time-bound criterion without that funding qualification. These are the terms of the historical Board instructions, not a funding disclosure or completion timetable for the Meja acquisition. ^[5]

For the land covered by the October declaration, the ministry’s documented next procedural step is the submission of claims to the designated Prayagraj authority within the publication-linked period. The declaration establishes the acquisition and invites those claims; it does not announce an operational opening date for the third line. ^[1]