Since the era of the British administration, residents of Wayanad and Coorg have been dreaming of a railway line connecting their villages to main urban centres such as Kozhikode, Thalassery or Mysuru. Even 164 years after the establishment of the Railways in the country, their dream remains unfulfilled.
On May 18, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) observed a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Wayanad to register their protest against the delay in the Nilambur-Nanjangud railway line becoming a reality.
On Friday, a high-power delegation of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), led by Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, called on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seeking his intervention to make the railway link a reality. But the fate of the railway line appears likely to hang in balance for much longer than what many expect, given the heavy, primarily environmental, odds stacked against it.
The Nilambur-Nanjangud line is one of the two major proposals that the Kerala government has been pushing for. The other is the Thalassery-Mysuru rail line, a long-pending demand from the people of north Malabar from the time of Lal Bahadur Shastri six decades ago. The proposed line would pass through the high altitude ridges of the Western Ghats and N.Begur of Karnataka, while the proposed Nilambur-Nanjangud rail line would pass through the Nilambur reserve forests, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
According to a recent study by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the Nilambur- Nanjangud rail line would cut short the travel time from Kochi to Bengaluru to just seven hours, bringing down the rail distance between Shoranur and Mysuru from 617 km to 253 km.
Karnataka not keen
The Nilambur-Nanjangud railway line will benefit the entire State and will provide port outlets for Mysuru, Bengaluru, and their hinterland. However, the Karnataka government is not keen about the project and the Kerala government’s biggest challenge is securing environmental clearance for the rail line which has to pass through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
The government had directed the DMRC to prepare a detailed project report for the rail line and had sanctioned ₹8 crore for the purpose last year in the light of strong public demand for the rail link.
An action council formed for the realisation of the Nilambur-Nanjangud railway line had demanded the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) as the project has been included in the Capital Investment Programme of the Railways. The project has also been incorporated in the ‘Pink Book’ of sanctioned works of Railways.
According to T. M. Rasheed, joint convener of the Mysuru-Wayanad Railway Action Council, the rail line to connect Wayanad with Mysuru was first proposed in the Mysore People’s Council in 1880. The Mysore administration report of 1891-93 proves that a survey was conducted for this line in 1892. Even though surveys were conducted in 1906 and during 1916-17 also by the Mysore government for a rail line to connect Mysore to Kerala (Malabar) through Wayanad, it did not materialise even after the lapse of a long time.
In 1921, the Railway Board deputed Chief Engineer Sir John Izzat to prepare a report for new railway lines required in south India and its order of priority.
He had recommended 26 new lines, of which 12th priority was for the Nanjangud-Wayanad-Nilambur-Shoranur line. Based on this report, in 1924, the railway authorities conducted a detailed survey named ‘Mysore-Wayanad Project’ as per Gazette of India notification No. 823P dated 29-8-1923.
Even though the Shoranur-Nilambur portion of the railway line was completed in 1927 and 25 other lines thereafter, the Nilambur-Nanjangud portion is still awaiting fruition.
The estimated cost of the project now is ₹4,000 crore. A new topographical alignment survey has brought down the distance between Nilambur and Nanjangud to 162.2 km, as against 236 km in the earlier surveys.
Joint venture
The government had last year decided to enter into a joint venture with the Ministry of Railway under 51:49 equity participation. In its report, the DMRC had recommended that until the detailed project report (DPR) for the Nilambur-Nanjangud railway line is available, no further action should be taken on the Thalassery-Mysuru railway proposal.
But that is saying little about the possibility of the two lines reaching fruition as both the proposed lines raise serious environmental concerns as they would have to pass through ecologically sensitive zones.
Alternative proposal
In the face of these uncertainties, many eco groups and forest officials have come up with an alternative proposal which envisages a possible Kannur seaport- airport-Wayanad-Coorg-Mysuru rail route with links to Kozhikode from Mananthavady.
“This would minimise ecological damage and will be beneficial to the entire north Kerala and Coorg. The upcoming international airport at Kannur will be a major hub owing to its strategic position in the centre of the Bengaluru, Kochi and Mangaluru airports,” said O. Jayarajan, former Conservator of Forests, who leads the Malabar Mysuru Rail Road Action Council.
The length of the proposed line has been roughly calculated to be 230 km on the Kannur-Mananthavady-Kozhikode route.
Of this, the Kannur-Mattannur line has already been included in the railway budget for 2016-17. The Ezhimala Naval Academy, Coast Guard Institute, CRPF Training Institute, DSC and Cantonment Kannur give more significance to the Kannur airport and the easy access from Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai make the airport more significant from the point of view of defence.
Thousands of professionals, students and businessmen commute everyday between North Malabar and Bengaluru. The new rail route and airport will obviously help save energy, time and money, he says.
The proposed line passes through Wayanad district and Coorg regions that produce a chunk of spices and other agricultural produces in South India. The introduction of railway would be a major boost to this agricultural belt.
Besides, Railways also will benefit by way of goods transhipments from Wayanad and Coorg.
Ecotourism would also get a major boost with the introduction of railway in Coorg and Wayanad. The world famous Nagarhole National Park, Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Bramhagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary can all be easily accessed from various parts of the country through the Kannur airport and the Wayanad-Mysuru rail line.
The council believes that important places of tourist significance such as Madikeri, Kusal Nagar, Bylakuppe, Thithimathi, Siddapura in Karnataka and places such as Kuruva island, Edakkal Caves, Banasurasagar, Bramhagiri peak, Pookot Lake and the Jain Temple in Wayanad would become reachable through a shorter distance once the alternative rail route becomes a reality. Overall, this entire rail route will result in major development of the comparatively under-developed regions of both Karnataka and Kerala.
As for the Nilambur-Nanjangund rail line, Mr. Jayarajan argues that instead of diverting the Kochi- Bengaluru route through Shoranur- Nilambur, the new rail line can be taken through Shoranur - Kozhikode –Koyilandy-Mananthavady-Mysuru as an alternative. The difference in distance will be about 40 km to Bengaluru, which can be further reduced in the topographical survey of the DMRC.
The distance from Ernakulam to Bengaluru will get reduced even more once the newly proposed Guruvayur-Thirunavaya rail line via Shoranur Junction becomes a reality. Another justification for this alternative line is that Koyilandy can be made a junction and a new rail line to Mananthavady with a length of 61 km can be linked to the Kannur-Mysuru line so as to solve the never ending issue of Nilambur-Nanjangud rail line.
Saving forests
The new proposal will save the pristine forests of Nilambur, Wayanad and Bandipur. The traffic will be more since the line is routed through Kozhikode instead of Nilambur. Thus, Mananthavady, the most backward taluk of Wayanad district will get an important junction facilitating rail traffic to Bengaluru from both Mangaluru and Kochi regions connecting Kasaragod, Kannur, Thalassery, Kozhikode, Tirur and Thrissur.
The suggested line from Koyilandy to Krishnarajanagar on the Hassan-Mysuru rail track will have a length of 157 km. Out of this, the line with a distance of 96 km from Manananthavady to Krishnarajanagar is already proposed in the Kannur-Mysuru route. An additional length of only 61 km is required for this project to provide an alternative route for the Nilambur-Nanjangund rail project. A total length of 230 km (169 km for the Kannur-Mysuru project and 61 km for the Kozhikode-Mysuru project) will suffice the purpose of two separate projects.
The Thalassery-Mysuru line and the Nilambur-Nanjangud line come to a length of about 317 km. The proposed distance of 230 km will be further reduced after the topographical survey by the DMRC. The project cost also can be drastically reduced since the length of tunnel lines will be comparatively very less in this alternative proposal.
The council says that most significant part of the proposal is that it is not cutting across any of the Protected Areas (PA) of both the States, like Bramhagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagerhole National Park and Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka and the Kottiyoor, Aralam and Wayanad wildlife sanctuaries of Kerala.
Only reserve forests to a stretch of 13 km in four locations would fall across the line where maximum tunnels can be provided. The total extent of forestland to be cleared as per the Forest Conservation Act will be less than eight hectares.
“The people of Malabar will gain a lot by way of time, energy and money if this project is implemented. Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Thalassery, Kannur and even Mangaluru will benefit from this proposal.” Mr. Jayarajan says.
