THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Saturday levelled corruption allegation against the proposed SilverLine semi high-speed rail project. After visiting protesters at Madappally in Changanassery where anti-K-Rail protest turned violent on Thursday, Chennithala said a blacklisted firm was given consultancy for the project as desired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
“The blacklisted French firm Systra was given consultancy. The commission for the consultant is 5% of the project cost. The estimate is around Rs 66,000 crore,” he said hinting that disproportionate amount of money is paid to the consultants. Chennithala demanded a probe into the issue and alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan personally intervened to fix the consultants.