On February 7, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tabled a written reply in the Parliament rejecting the Thiruvananthapuram–Kasaragod Semi High-Speed Rail (SilverLine) Project in its present form.
The minister essentially said that the DPR (detailed project report) submitted by Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) did not have sufficient details to make out whether the project was technically feasible. Not a surprise as this has been the Centre's official position for the last two years.
But on the very same day, on the day Pinarayi Vijayan's dream project was dealt the latest of the innumerable snubs, Kerala wrote a letter to the Union Railway Minister seeking approval for SilverLine, but without any promise of revising the DPR as repeatedly demanded by the Centre. The Kerala Budget, presented two days ago on February 5, had also said that K-Rail would be implemented.
Is K-Rail politics than development?
This attempt to keep the SilverLine alive, without any intention to rework the project design, can arouse suspicions about the LDF government's motives. Yet another contradiction heightens the suspicion.
Kerala government gives the impression of desperately wanting a high speed rail for Kerala but is indifferent to even minor requests from Southern Railway. For instance the KRDCL, the company formed to realise SilverLine, has not bothered to even respond to Southern Railway's repeated pleas for a joint inspection of the land it wants from the official railway network.
Why is then Pinarayi Vijayan after SilverLine? Is the Chief Minister trying to cultivate and sustain a pro-development image even if certain that the project will not take off? Or, by making a show of pestering the Centre, is Pinarayi trying to throw up yet another proof of Centre's neglect?
Centre’s smoke and mirrors display
A closer reading of the developments will reveal that the Centre is not against SilverLine as Union Minister Vaishnaw's statements seem to indicate. It will be instructive to take note of the recent communications between the Railway Board (Ministry of Railways) and Southern Railway (SR).
The first letter was sent on October 18, 2023, and this wanted the SR's comments on SilverLine. The SR sent a report quickly on October 21 detailing its long-standing concerns about K-Rail.
Why is Railway wary of SilverLine?
Here are some. One, the proposed alignment of the Silverline was finalised without consultation with the SR administration.
Two, the DPR's silence on the impact of having an alignment extremely close to the existing railway structures, especially the interruption of train operations that would be caused by the dismantling and reconstruction of railway assets to make way for Silverline. Even staff quarters at many stations will have to be demolished.
Three, inadequate spacing between the proposed high speed line and existing rail; in many areas it is less than 5 metres. The SR has begun expansion work in land that were left unutilised in 2019, when the SilverLine alignment was drawn up. Many stations including Kozhikode, Kannur, Tirur, Thalassery, Vadakara, Payyannur, Kanhangad have been included in the station redevelopment scheme. In certain areas, the land proposed for Silverline has already been leased to the NHAI for the six-laning of NH 66. Therefore, Silverline assets cannot be created as proposed in the DPR in many of these areas.
Four, "skew crossings' of the proposed alignment. The DPR shows the K-Rail crossing the existing tracks at angles more acute than 45 degrees at all locations. This will restrict the availability of space for laying future tracks.
Return from the dead
Just when it was thought that the final nail has been hammered on the SilverLine coffin, the Railway Board shot off a second letter to the SR on November 1, 2023, 10 days after it received the SR report. As if unconvinced, it wanted more comments from the SR.
Thereafter, the SR held two meetings with KRDCL, on November 27 and December 8 last year. Both the sides stuck to their stand and the SR did not submit any more comments.
More than a month later on January 16 this year, the Board shot a third letter to the SR. "Zonal railway (SR) is again requested to expedite the matter and submit detailed comments to the Board at the earliest," it said, and added in capital bold: "TREAT THE MATTER MOST URGENT".
The SR has not responded till now. The SR officials Onmanorama talked to said on the condition of anonymity that they have nothing more to add than what was stated in the report submitted on October 21 last. "The Centre seems keen on the project," a senior official said.
Change of heart?
Nonetheless, the Board's enthusiasm for SilverLine is perplexing. It was in April 2023 that the Board had said that K-Rail had not furnished detailed technical documents such as alignment plan, details of land, crossings over existing railway network even two years after the DPR; the DPR was submitted on June 24, 2020.
The Board had then also raised suspicions about the estimated project cost of Rs 63,940.67 crore. The NITI Aayog had pegged the project cost at Rs.1.26 lakh crore.
