Lok Sabha Debates
Issue Regarding Flaws In Silver Line Rail Project In Kerala. on 9 December, 2021
Seventeenth Loksabha an> Title: Issue regarding flaws in Silver Line Rail Project in Kerala.
SHRI K. SUDHAKARAN (KANNUR): Sir, I urge upon the Union Government to abstain from the Silver Line Rail Project proposed by the Government of Kerala. The Chief Minister of Kerala is misleading the people with false promises, wrong cost estimates, unrealistic completion dates, and flawed technical parameters in this K-Rail Project. This project should be vehemently opposed for five reasons: (1) The financial burden for creating 530 km of high-speed rail line is Rs.1,20,000 crore. The cost estimate is highly over projected. This comes when the State economy is on the verge of collapse. (2) K-Rail project requires Rs.1,400 hectares of land. This includes wetlands, forest areas, backwater regions, residential areas with a high density of population, rice fields, and existing building spaces. The cost of environmental damage, thereby, would be huge. (3) The Silver Line Rail Project is designed on the fallacy of unwarranted assumptions. The alignment chosen is flawed. From Tirur to Kasaragod, it runs parallel to the existing railway line. The Railways had opposed this alignment as it would interfere with the future quadrupling of this stretch. Besides, 140 km of the line passes through paddy fields, which are not stable for high-speed travel. (4) Land acquisition will be a white elephant. At least 67 per cent land for K-Rail falls under the Panchayat area, 15 per cent land in highly urbanised municipal areas, and 18 per cent within the municipal corporation limits. In a densely populated Kerala, this project will uproot the homes of hundreds and thousands of people.