KOCHI: Optimistic of the state government giving the high-speed rail project a green signal, ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan said on Tuesday that he had proposed a rail line to Wayanad too. Sreedharan, the former Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chief, was addressing the fourth Integrated Civil Engineers Council (ICEC) Engineer’s Summit in Angamaly. He stressed that the high-speed rail project is a necessity for Keralam.
According to him, in the second and third phases of the project, the rail line could be extended to Kasaragod, Wayanad and Palakkad districts.
“The rail line system will cover practically two-thirds area of the state. This cheap and faster mode of transport within the state would change the very face of Keralam. Its industrial progress and social facilities would receive a big boost. Most importantly, road accidents are expected to be reduced by half, which means five to seven lives will be saved every day, which itself is enough justification for the project,” Sreedharan said.
As for the queries raised by the expert committee, he said, “They wanted a complete revision of the project to align with the multi-transit model envisaged by the state government. However, such a revision is not possible since the entire project has been envisaged for passenger traffic.”
The ‘Metro Man’ clarified that recommendations like running freight trains on the line cannot be implemented because the Commission of Railway Safety would not approve it. Freight trains in India run on broad gauge.
“If broad gauge is adopted, the axle load will have to be raised to 25 tonnes as against 15 tonnes for standard gauge. Since the line is fully elevated and carried on pillars, the cost of civil work could be reduced by 30%, compared to broad gauge,” he said.
Another key query raised by the committee, he said, was connecting the ports.
“This too wouldn’t be viable since it would defeat the purpose of the entire project. This is a single standalone project that aims to ease the travel woes of the people in Keralam. Another query raised was the environmental impact of the construction activities. It is an expected thing for any construction.
However, since we are doing an elevated structure, the impact will be minimal. We have been highlighting that the project is completely green. Even the power supply will be met by tapping into solar power,” Sreedharan said. Another of the committee’s recommendations was the commercialisation of stations.
“However, that would incur expenditure in terms of additional infrastructure, and again, land acquisition,” the celebrated engineer said.
Provision has been made for commercial establishments at the high-speed rail’s Thiruvananthapuram station, he said.
Further, he said the high-speed rail would reduce road traffic considerably, as a 12 to 14-hour journey from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram would be reduced to just 3 hours and 30 minutes, which is less than 1/3rd of the time taken by Southern Railway trains. Even the Vande Bharat train takes 6 hours and 48 minutes.
“Therefore, we expect at least 70% of the Southern Railway travellers on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur section to switch over to the high-speed rail. This is expected to release eight to nine train paths on Southern Railway routes, enabling it to run more inter-state or freight trains. Similarly, most road users along this route will also switch to high-speed rail because of huge savings in travel time and travel costs,” Sreedharan added.