The Kerala government on Monday, December 12, made it clear that its ambitious semi-high speed rail corridor, SilverLine, has not been shelved and that it will receive, in time, the Union government's go ahead. The submission was made in the state assembly by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also said that the government was not considering withdrawing the criminal cases against those who opposed the laying of survey stones in connection with the project.
The Chief Minister was responding to the queries posed by some United Democratic Front (UDF) MLAs, who said that since the project is frozen for now due to lack of Union government's approval, will the state government consider withdrawing notifications issued in connection with it. The MLAs also asked about the fate of the lands earmarked for acquisition for the project and whether the government would consider withdrawing the criminal cases against those who opposed laying of survey stones as the rail corridor has not yet received approval from the Union government.
Denying that the project is frozen as claimed by the opposition, Pinarayi Vijayan categorically said, "There were some talks in the Union government against approval for the project in view of the protests against it and therefore, we decided to wait for their go ahead before proceeding any further with it. But like I have said earlier in the House, approval will have to be given for the project. If not now, then in the future."
At the same time, he also said that people who own lands earmarked for acquisition to construct the rail corridor need not be concerned, as their properties have not been acquired and there is no hindrance in carrying out transactions, like sale or mortgage. He also said that the state government was not considering withdrawing the criminal cases against those who opposed laying of the survey stones and the project.
The opposition also asked why the LDF government went ahead with the project before getting approval from the Union government, and whether it caused any financial loss to the state exchequer. To this, the Chief Minister replied that the government went ahead with the project-related work in view of the approvals granted vide circulars of April 2019 and August 2016 by the Railway Board and Finance Ministry, respectively. “Since approval was granted by the Board and the ministry for carrying out work, there was nothing wrong in spending money on the same,” the Chief Minister reasoned.
The SilverLine would cover a 530-kilometre stretch from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod and be developed by K-Rail, a joint venture of the Kerala government and the Ministry of Railways. The semi-high speed rail corridor aims to ease transportation along the entire north and south stretch of Kerala and reduce the travel time to less than four hours as against 12 to 14 hours at present.