Delay in Central nod a dampener on SilverLine

After 20 years, Railway Board is yet to decide on the project

The work on the SilverLine semi-high-speed railway project is likely to run into rough weather if the Centre continues to drag its feet on granting final permission to it. At present, a joint inspection by Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd. (K-Rail) and the Southern Railway is underway as part of making a land plan for the project. The land plan, which will ascertain the extent of Railway land to be acquired for the project, is expected to be completed in two months.

After that, K-Rail has to prepare tender documents and conduct hydrological and soil surveys. However, the final approval of the Centre is required for the K-Rail authorities to go ahead with these works.

Around 250 km of the project would pass through land adjacent to the Railways land – mainly from Tirur to Kasaragod and some stretches in Thiruvananthapuram. Alignment stones have been laid in identified plots in around 70-80 km stretch. The rest of the work would be completed in a couple of months. The State government too requires Central approval to go ahead with subsequent works. The Railway Board has been sitting on the SilverLine file for 20 months.

₹20 crore already spent

According to a senior officer, the intervention of the office of the Prime Minister is required for the final clearance by Railways. It is expected that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will meet the Prime Minister during his next trip to New Delhi to speed up the process of granting final clearance. The State has spent around ₹20 crore for the project till now, including for the preparation of the detailed project report (DPR). The State is allowed to make a pre-investment of ₹100 crore as per the in-principle approval given by the Centre for the project.

‘Political approval’

“The project is conceived in line with the Union government policy and it is not clear why the Railway Board is now looking for political approval to give green signal for the project. When Mr. Vijayan met Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi in 2021, the latter had sought a detailed presentation of the project. But Mr. Vaishnaw is yet to allot time for the presentation of the project,” said officials.

The project envisages trains running at a maximum speed of 200 km per hour through the dedicated Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod track, covering the distance in four hours.