Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Rail Development Corporation (K-Rail) has informed the Railways that it is willing to change the alignment of the proposed SilverLine project in order to exclude the latter’s land. The K-Rail took this position in its reply to the Railways’ suggestion to revise the detailed project report (DPR) for SilverLine. 

In the letter, K-Rail said that the new alignment would address the concerns raised by Southern Railway that it could lose land while implementing the project as per the existing proposal, under which Railway land would be utilised to the north of Thrissur. Under such circumstances, K-Rail has now told the Railways that the alignment could be altered northwards from Thrissur, and it is learnt that Kerala might carry out construction works up to the city from the south as the first phase, in the event of the project receiving approval. 

The Railways’ allocation for the project amounts to Rs 3,125 crore, of which Rs 975 crore is accounted for the 185 hectares of Railway land to be utilized, leaving a balance of Rs 2,150 crore to be paid. 

K-Rail’s letter also points out that the Railways would have to spend the full amount for a third and fourth line between Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru, and the SilverLine would cause lesser expenditure for the Central Government. According to K-Rail, the project is planned to be implemented under the ‘PPP’ (public private partnership) model, as part of which the state government would be sourcing the funds, requiring minimum investment by the Centre. 

Incidentally, this is the first time that K-Rail mentions the PPP model, under which at least 70 per cent of the total land required for a project has to be acquired beforehand and handed over to the implementing agency. Unilateral acquisition adopted for government projects is also not possible. 

At the same time, K-Rail managing director V Ajith Kumar said the SilverLine PPP model differs from that of the Vizhinjam project. “We are referring to it as PPP only because private investments will also be accepted to implement SilverLine. Our PPP model will be similar to CIAL's (Cochin International Airport Limited),” he said.