THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It will be a summer shower of arguments for and against SilverLine semi high-speed rail project in the state capital on Thursday as three debates to dissect the Rs 64,000-core prestigious project of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government are scheduled for the day.
The day of debates will start with the one organised by K-Rail which has already become a controversy with the exclusion of IT expert Joseph C Mathew and subsequent withdrawal by Alok Kumar Varma and Sridhar Radhakrishnan from the panel.
The organisers, however, decided to go ahead with the debate though the panel opposing SilverLine will have only one member, RVG Menon, former president of Sastra Sahitya Parishath, to argue against the project. Subodh Kumar Jain, retired member of Railway Board, Kuncheria P Isac, former VC of Technological University, and SN Raghuchandran Nair, president, Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce and Industries, will represent the panel which will be arguing for the project.
In the afternoon, there will be a seminar on the economic and environmental aspects of SilverLine organised by movement for People’s Friendly Development. C P Rajendran, Geologist at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, will inaugurate the seminar at Press Club hall at 3pm. K G Thara, former head of disaster management authority, M Suchita, journalist, K K Rema, MLA, economist M Kabir, Joseph C Mathew, environmentalist K Sahadevan and social thinker Prof Sivaprasad will speak.
Metroman E Sreedharan will inaugurate the seminar organised by Institution of Engineers at Institution of Engineers hall, opposite Kanakakunnu Palace at 5.30pm on Thursday. People’s resistance council has announced another debate on the project on May 4 in the capital.