Kochi, February 14. The Kerala government, embattled by the opponents of Silverline got a reprieve today when a division bench of the Kerala High Court vacated a stay on land survey for SilverLine, semi high speed rail corridor project. Now, the government can go ahead with the survey. Today’s order by the division bench comprising of the chief justice of Kerala High Court Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly revokes an earlier order of a single judge of the court Justice Devan Ramachandran staying the survey.
The SilverLine semi high speed rail corridor plans to connect the northernmost district of Kasaragod with the Southernmost district of Thiruvananthapuram. It is expected to bring down the travel time from the present 12 hours to around four hours. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 64,000 crores.
The high court also rescinded the earlier order that Kerala government should submit to the court the details of the detailed project report (DPR). Now the state government can go ahead with the survey process.
Meanwhile the union government has informed the high court that the present alignment of the SilverLine corridor doesn’t have the approval of the union government’s ministry of railways, and so it is better to stall the proceedings initiated currently to acquire land for the project.
