The Centre has made it clear that it has not given permission for the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (K-Rail) to lay survey stones for its proposed SilverLine semi high-speed rail project on land belonging to the Railways.
A written instruction was sent detailing the same, the Centre informed the Kerala High Court on Friday, adding that the State government has also not approached the Railways seeking permission to conduct a social impact assessment yet.
In addition, no financial sanction has been given for the SilverLine project, it said.
The Centre's submission has come a day after the Kerala High Court had orally stated that the Centre was equally obliged to remove concerns about the project as it was a joint venture.
"The Government of India is also an equal partner in K-Rail, so your responsibility to answer all these questions is equal," Justice Devan Ramachandran, while hearing petitions challenging the planting of survey stones, had orally observed on April 7.
Nonetheless, the Centre's stand distancing itself from the pre-'land acquisition' procedures related to the SilverLine project is confusing.
One, the Centre had given in-principle approval for "taking up pre-investment activities" related to the semi-high speed project in December 2019. The laying of survey stones now is just a mere detail within the larger pre-investment procedures that the Centre had asked Kerala to begin.
Two, a month later, on January 15, 2021, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to begin talks with the lending agency, JICA, and expedite land acquisition and other clearances. This letter had even set aside an earlier direction by the screening committee of the Department of Economic Affairs (in August 2020) that Kerala drops the SilverLine project and instead concentrates on completing eight other projects already in the pipeline worth Rs 5900 crore.
Given the Centre's positive response to SilverLine, demonstrated in these two communications, its latest indifference lends credibility to the CPM charge that the Centre is using the project for political ends.
The SilverLine rail corridor is expected to reduce the travel time between the northern and southern ends of Kerala from 12 hours to just 4 hours. K-Rail or Kerala Rail Development Corporation is a joint venture organisation between the Kerala government and the Ministry of Railways.
It is overseeing the social impact assessment for the project, but the laying of survey stones has been met with vehement protests as people fear that the land where they are being laid is set to be taken up for the construction of the semi high-speed railway track.
