Kerala Government’s claims of having central government’s nod for their SilverLine semi high speed rail corridor project stands debunked after a categorical denial of the same by the union government. Further, the announcement of union government to press into service 400 new Vande Bharat Express trains (semi-high speed trains) across the country including Kerala has raised questions about the relevance of SilverLine.
The 530.6 kilometre long rail corridor will connect Kasaragod at the northern end of the state with Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. It is expected that the SilverLine will reduce travel time between both ends of the state from the present 11 hours to around four hours.
Union Government’s clarifications
The union government went on record for the first time on February 1. Later on also, the union government reiterated its position to different stakeholders, and clarified their position before the Kerala High Court. Replying to the questions of Kerala MPs, K Muraleedharan and N.K Premachandran in Lok Sabha on February 1, the union minister for railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said, the railway ministry is scrutinising the DPR of the semi high speed railway line submitted by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation (K-Rail), the implementing agency of SilverLine.
The minister further said, the DPR doesn’t have the necessary details to verify the technical feasibility of the project. The K-Rail has been asked to submit necessary details including alignment plan, details of the government land and private land, crossings at the existing railway lines, and impact of the SilverLine on Indian Railways’ assets. Only after ensuring the technical feasibility of the project, its economic viability will be examined. The SilverLine project will be considered only after completing the social impact study, technical feasibility and economic viability studies, the minister said in his reply.
The K Rail has submitted an application to union finance ministry for the permission to take a loan of Rs 33,700 crore from the international agencies JICA, ADB, ALL,and KfW. The total estimated cost of the SilverLine project is Rs 63,941 crore According to Mr. Premachandran and Mr. Muraleedhan, the Kerala government is trying to acquire land even before completing the DPR which is preposterous. The union government has clarified unambiguously that it hasn’t granted permission for the project. Kerala government is trying to grab land raising the smokescreen of DPR, they said.
Meanwhile, the opposition leader V. D. Satheeshan accused that the unnecessary haste being shown by the Kerala Government to implement the project raises doubts about corruption in the implementation. He opined that the data in DPR is fabricated.
In the meantime, a delegation of Kerala BJP including metroman E Sreedharan met the union railway minister and explained the problems in the project to the minister. Later, speaking to the media Mr Sreedharan said he doesn’t think that the union government will approve the project as there are a lot of technical errors in it.
On February 4, the union government informed the Kerala High Court that the proceedings of land acquisition should be stalled at this stage as even the feasibility of the alignment has not been approved by the Ministry of Railways.
A statement submitted by the centre in the high court reportedly says granting of in-principle approval only means approval to go ahead with the preparation of DPR which brings out the complete details of the project including financial (aspects). Whether to take up a project or not is decided based on the details brought out in the DPR . Now, with the union government clarifying its position explicitly, the Kerala government will have to find it difficult to go ahead with land acquisitions.
Vande Bharat
Meanwhile, the announcement in the union budget 2022-23 that 400 new Vande Bharat semi high speed trains will be pressed into service in the next three years, has raised questions over the relevance of Silver Line express. The Vande Bharat can achieve a maximum speed of 200 km / hour and has already achieved 180 km / hour at certain stretches. It has an average operating speed of 130 km per hour currently.
Even if Vande Bharat trains achieve an operating speed of 160 km per hour in the coming days, it will make SilverLine irrelevant. The renovation of tracks and signalling system for Vande Bharat trains is expected to cost less than Rs 25,000 crore which is much less than SilverLine. While the travel cost by Vande Bharat will be less than SilverLine, there won’t be much difference in travel time. Perhaps Vande Bharat could achieve operating speeds similar to SilverLIne in the coming days. Anyway, the Kerala government is at a loss at present.
