INDIA: Bombay High Court has approved mangrove felling needed for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train power line in Palghar, allowing work on a 13.06-kilometre connection to the proposed Amberserai traction substation.

Elevated Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail track crossing green fields in India.
Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail corridor in India. Photo: Kshitij08, CC0 1.0.

The court ruling allows Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL) to fell 847 mangrove trees for the connection from the existing Dahanu substation to Amberserai. The project requires diversion of 3.35 hectares of forest land, including 1.9656 hectares of mangrove forest in Dahanu taluka.

Judicial permission was required under a 2018 Bombay High Court judgment restricting destruction of mangroves for infrastructure projects. The court noted that the diversion and felling proposal had already been scrutinised by the competent authorities before granting permission.

Why the 132 kV link matters to traction power?

Amberserai is identified in the case as a proposed traction substation. Together with NHSRCL’s description of power-supply transmission lines feeding traction and distribution substations, that places the 132 kV Dahanu–Amberserai connection within the external supply chain for the railway’s traction-power system.

NHSRCL’s current project overview says the 508-kilometre Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail corridor is being equipped with a 2×25 kV overhead traction system. It lists 12 traction substations, two depot traction substations and 16 distribution substations being built along the corridor, alongside power-supply transmission lines.

The court decision therefore removes a permitting obstacle for one grid connection, but it does not mean that the line, Amberserai traction substation or wider traction-power system has been energised or commissioned.

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Power infrastructure remains under construction

NHSRCL’s project overview, last updated in May 2026, states that the traction and distribution substation network and power-supply transmission lines are under construction along the alignment. Earlier electrification work included installation of overhead equipment masts to support the 2×25 kV system.

For the Dahanu–Amberserai connection specifically, the court order does not give a construction completion or commissioning date. The approval therefore allows the mangrove-affected works to proceed rather than confirming completion of the transmission line or the Amberserai traction substation.

The environmental issue remains part of the approval. The bench questioned compensatory afforestation planned in Solapur district, several hundred kilometres from the felling site, because replacement planting there would not restore the ecological balance of the affected Palghar area.

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