The SilverLine rail project is a 63,941 crore rupees semi-high speed rail project proposed by the Kerala government. The proposed 529.45 km railway line will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in the north. It will cover 11 districts through 11 stations. The project is a joint venture between the Kerala government and the union Ministry of Railways. Once it is completed, one would be able to travel from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram in less than four hours at 200 km per hour whereas it now takes 12 hours to cover the distance. The deadline of the project is 2025.
The Centre has only given in-principle approval to the SilverLine Project. In-principle approval means only approval to go ahead with preparation of the detailed project report (DPR) in order to bring out details of the project. The union minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, on February 2, 2022, in his written reply informed in the Parliament that the DPR submitted by the Kerala government was incomplete. The DPR did not contain detailed information like technical feasibility and financial viability of the project. The Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (K-Rail) has been advised to provide detailed technical documents such as alignment plan, particulars of railway land and private land, crossings over existing railway network, duly depicting affected railway asset through Zonal Railway for detailed examination of the project, and to arrive at a conclusion about feasibility of the project. The railway minister’s response came in to the queries raised by Kerala MPs N.K. Premachandran and K. Muraleedharan, regarding the project.
The K-Rail, which works as an executive agency of the state government in the SilverLine Project stated that it has still not received any official notification from the union government in this regard. It also stated that it would furnish the required details to the government on receiving intimation.
The Kerala government began the process of land acquisition for the project after the state cabinet approved the project in June 2021. A total of 1,383 hectares of land has to be acquired for the construction of the project, of which 1,198 hectares would be private land. The state cabinet has approved administrative sanction to borrow Rs 2,100 crore from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the central investment arm of the Kerala government.
In the first stage of land acquisitions, the local revenue and K-Rail officials are demarcating land and placing boundary stones. This is to get an idea of how much private land would have to be acquired and the number of families that have to be displaced. The project is expected to be constructed using equity funds from the Kerala government, the Centre, and loans from multilateral lending agencies. The Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting his personal interventions to give all the necessary clearances. The finance minister was requested to make provision for this project in the winter session budget of 2022. The Kerala government is also planning to issue a ‘white paper’ on the high-speed rail to explain the benefits of the project and its potential in the future. A part of the DPR was released by the government following demands by the Opposition parties as well as activists.
Need for project According to urban policy experts, the present railway infrastructure in Kerala would not be able to meet the demands of the future. As there are a lot of curves and bends on the existing stretch, most of the trains run at an average speed of 45 km per hour. The Kerala government is of the opinion that the SilverLine project would take a significant load of traffic off the existing stretch. Commuters would be able to reach their destinations faster; there would be reduction in congestion on roads, and would help reduce accidents. The government also claims that the SilverLine would also reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, help in expansion of Ro-Ro (Roll-on Roll-off) services. [Roll-on Roll-off (Ro-Ro) services is a concept of carrying road vehicles loaded with various commodities, on open flat railway wagons. These services are a combination of best features of road and rail transports. It provides door-to-door services by direct road link.] It would also provide employment opportunities, integrate airports and IT corridors, and enable faster development of cities it passes through.
Key features of the project According to K-Rail, the project would have trains of electric multiple unit (EMU) type. Each train would preferably have nine cars, which could be extendable up to 12. A nine-car rake can seat a maximum of 675 passengers in business and standard class settings. On an average, daily ridership is expected to be 80,000 passengers. The trains would run on a standard gauge track at a speed of approximately 220 km per hour and would complete its journey on either direction in less than four hours.
The railway line starting from Thiruvananthapuram would have stations in Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Ernakulam (Kakkanad), Cochin Airport, Thrissur, Tirur, Kozhikode, and Kannur before culminating in Kasaragod. The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has already offered one acre for the station there. There would be three elevated stations at Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, and Thrissur. The proposed station at Kozhikode would be underground and the rest of the seven stations would be at grade. Under-passage service roads have been proposed at every 500 m.
Protests against the project The Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (REIA) of the project was completed earlier in 2020. The REIA was done by the Thiruvananthapuram-based research institute, Centre for Environment and Development (CED). However, the CED was not permitted to conduct the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) by the state government, stating that it was not an authorised agency.
The EIA report was submitted in July 2020. According to it, the SilverLine does not run through any designated area such as national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves, or other ecologically sensitive places.
According to experts, a Comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (CEIA), covering impacts of all the four seasons of the year is required rather than coming to a conclusion with the EIA covering only one season. The report focussed only on the positive elements of the project. It disregarded the main negative elements and also has failed to propose methods to alleviate them. As this project involves one of the global biodiversity hotspots, the Western Ghats, the impacts related to biodiversity should be carefully assessed.
The Kerala state administration has claimed that this railway line would cut greenhouse gas emissions. However, environmentalists have voiced their concerns about the potential ecosystem harm. They are concerned that the waterways, paddy fields, and wetlands of the state would be irreversibly damaged. They believe that this would result in future floods and landslides in the state. The building of embankments on either side of the major portion of this railway line would block the natural drainage and could cause floods during heavy rains.
Political parties, including the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), as well as citizen outfits, such as K-Rail SilverLine Viruddha Janakeeya Samiti, have been spearheading separate protests against the SilverLine Project. A petition signed by 17 Opposition MPs from the state stated that this project was an ‘astronomical scam in the making’. In their petition to the union railway minister, they stated that this project would sink the state further into debt. According to them, the project was financially unviable as it required displacement of 30,000 families. Also, according to K-Rail, around 9,314 structures would have to be razed. This means that the amount could be doubled if the Environment Management Plan (EMP) is completed.
The Kerala Paristhiti Aikya Vedi, a forum of ecology experts, has urged the government to abandon the project and explore sustainable solutions. Metro Man, E. Sreedharan, the former head of Delhi Metro, has also termed the project ‘ill conceived’ and defectively planned. According to him, before its implementation, the present proposal needs a lot of correction including its basic track width.
The concerned citizens have appealed the government to rigorously explore all the options in enhancing the existing Indian railway system in Kerala. They say that it would be “more cost-effective than the currently proposed system”.
Stand of Kerala government The Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan has stated that the SilverLine Project would not be abandoned because of the protest of the people. The state would work on its progress from time to time and would not go back from implementing development activities. According to him, there would only be minor difficulties to the citizens. However, the government would aim to minimise the hardships caused by it. The allegation that the project is harmful to the environment is completely false as the project does not pass through any ecologically sensitive areas or wildlife areas.
Kerala High Court on the project The Kerala High Court in December 2021, stayed the process of laying boundary stones on the land identified for the SilverLine Project. A single bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran on January 13, 2022, stayed the project while considering two petitions against its implementation. The petitions stated that the project is being taken up without conducting a social impact and environmental impact study. The court said that it should not be implemented by ‘intimidating and threatening the people’. The court also asked the central government to make its stand clear on the project.
The court was of the view that it was improper for one counsel to appear for both the Union of India and the Ministry of Railways since there was a clear conflict of interest involved. As this is the biggest project, the Kerala government has taken upon itself, the law cannot be violated in its attempts to execute the project.
On February 4, 2022, the Centre informed the Kerala High Court that it was ‘advisable’ that the land acquisition proceedings for the project be stopped as the financial viability of the project was questionable. The submission of the central government came in response to appeals filed by the Kerala state government challenging courts order of January 20 staying till February 7 the survey of properties of petitioners is relation to the project. The Centre has also pointed out the railway ministry is not satisfied with the present track alignment for the project. Considering the issue of land acquisition, financial viability, and mass displacement, the future of the project is now hanging between the Centre and the state. The central government further said that the final decision on taking up the project or otherwise would be decided once DPR is made.
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