KOLLAM: Even as the Railways has stepped up plans to strengthen Kerala’s saturated rail network with proposed third railway lines, progress continues to be hampered by delays in land acquisition, with only 13% of the required land acquired so far, the Centre has informed Parliament.
Replying to a question raised by Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan in the Lok Sabha recently, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said field surveys have been completed for the proposed third and fourth line projects on the Shoranur-Coimbatore (99 km), Shoranur-Ernakulam (107 km), Mangaluru-Shoranur (307 km) and Kayamkulam-Thiruvananthapuram (105 km) stretches, while preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) is under way.
The Ernakulam-Kayamkulam (via Kottayam) project remains at the field survey stage after completion of the traffic survey, while the Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil third-line project has only been sanctioned for DPR preparation.
However, the projects have seen little progress over the past year. In July 2025, the Union railway minister had informed Parliament that DPRs were under preparation for the Mangaluru-Shoranur-Palakkad-Coimbatore third and fourth lines and the Shoranur-Ernakulam-Kayamkulam-Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil third-line corridor. The latest reply indicates that most of these projects remain at the same stage.
The minister said the projects could be sanctioned only after the DPRs are finalised and consultations are held with stakeholders, including the Kerala government, NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Finance.
The reply also highlighted that, of the 618 hectares required for ongoing railway infrastructure projects in Kerala, only 78 hectares have been acquired, leaving 540 hectares (87%) pending.
The Railways said it had already deposited Rs 1,976 crore with the Kerala government towards land acquisition and urged the state to expedite the process.