Silverline Project needs wider debate, better transparency
If there’s an option to travel between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod, a distance of about 550 km by road, in four hours, who wouldn’t want it? However, the Kerala government’s ambitious plan to construct a semi high-speed rail corridor connecting the south and north ends of the state has vertically divided its population. With CM Pinarayi Vijayan declaring that there is no going back on the Rs 64,000-crore SilverLine project and state Congress chief K Sudhakaran vowing to stall work by mobilising people, the stage is set for an intense socio-political conflict. High-speed connectivity has been considered by successive governments since 2001, when PWD minister M K Muneer mooted an express highway.
The project was shelved following opposition from the LDF and environmentalists. The plan for a high-speed rail network was first suggested in the 2011 Budget. In 2012, based on a feasibility study conducted by DMRC, the Oommen Chandy government announced a high-speed rail corridor with an estimated cost of Rs 1.18 lakh crore. It didn’t take off. Based on a fresh study, the SilverLine project was announced in the 2019–20 Budget. With the government now accelerating efforts to implement the project with a four-year deadline, critics have come up with a barrage of allegations that range from possible flooding to the vertical division of Kerala.
While many of the allegations appear frivolous, some questions need answers. A dozen high-speed rail projects are under various stages of implementation in the country. Instead of going for a similar project, the logic of constructing a standalone rail network with inferior technology is hard to explain. Besides, there are glaring mismatches in figures such as daily ridership and economic internal rate of return in preliminary and final feasibility studies, raising doubts that crucial figures were not handled seriously while planning the project. The insistence on keeping the detailed project report a secret does not help either.
There’s no doubt that Kerala needs better mobility options, and fast trains and express highways are the way to go. But the government must address people’s concerns. Let the detailed project report be made available in the public domain and discussed in local bodies and the state Assembly. Better transparency will only help ensure people’s support and speedy implementation. Since this is a futuristic project, the option of upgrading it to a high-speed corridor is also worth considering.