India News | Expect All Central Approvals for Semi-high Speed Rail Line by Dec: Kerala Rail Chief
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Despite mounting opposition from various quarters, the Kerala Rail Development Corporation, which is working on a 530-km-long semi-high speed rail line connecting the capital city with the northern-most district of Kasargod, expects all central approvals for the ambitious project by December, a top official said.
Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 24 (PTI) Despite mounting opposition from various quarters, the Kerala Rail Development Corporation, which is working on a 530-km-long semi-high speed rail line connecting the capital city with the northern-most district of Kasargod, expects all central approvals for the ambitious project by December, a top official said.
Apart from public opposition mainly to the alignment due to large displacements in thickly-populated central Kerala, the Left-leaning Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad is the latest to demand a relook at the rail corridor, christened the Silver Line, saying it does not give priority to the development of the transport sector.
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The Parishad also says the Rs 63,941-crore project will aggravate an already debt-laden state, apart from creating more environmental problems. It has suggested doubling the existing lines and electronic signalling of the mainline railhead.
The speed railhead, which will reduce the travel time between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod to 4 hours from over 14 hours now, is expected to be commissioned by 2024 and will have 12 stations.
"We are working full-steam as we expect to get all the central approvals by November-December. While we already have the go-ahead from the rail ministry, we need to get the green signals from Niti Aayog, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and the finance ministry.
"I am confident of getting all the approvals by late November or early December," Kerala Rail Development Corporation Managing Director V Ajith Kumar told PTI here on Friday.
The Centre will invest just Rs 3,000 crore in equity for the project, of which Rs 975 crore is the cost of the railway land that will be shared for the project wherever there is parallel alignment with the existing mainlines, he said, adding thus the effective cost for the railways is just about Rs 2,025 crore for a project worth Rs 64,000 crore.
Asked whether he expects to invite the tenders during the tenure of the present government -- the state goes to polls next year -- Kumar, who is on deputation from the railways, answered in the negative, saying it is too close a call even though the draft tender documents are ready.
On the opposition to land acquisition, he said each district collector (in districts through which the line is passing) has to have individual hearing with land owners before acquisition of the land, which is around 3,000 acres spanning 11 districts.
"Each collector will conduct the hearing for each district and probably by this month-end or early next month sanction should come in for as much as 80 per cent of the required land," Kumar said.
While the social impact assessment will be conducted soon by the Paris-based Systra, the environment impact assessment has already been completed by the city-based Centre for Development Studies.
Regarding the opposition being mounted by the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad, he said, "Of course, the Parishad's public posture may create some doubts in the minds of the public. But I can convince them about the need for this project and also allay their fears. I am in touch with them."
He said the Parishad's proposal of doubling the mainline and electronic signalling cannot be done as the railways does not allow suburban services on its mainlines, and secondly, with electronic signalling one cannot increase the speed but only frequencies, which is not what the Silver Line is offering.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)