THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Authorities seem to be groping in the dark over the specifications for the SilverLine safety zone with the Detailed Project Report and an RTI reply from K-Rail specifying different yardsticks. There’s also confusion over the land to be acquired for the project.The executive summary of the Detailed Project Report for the SilverLine advises the government to freeze all development work within 30 metres from the central line of the alignment.
Meanwhile, a recent RTI reply by K-Rail said that 20 metres is the safety zone necessary for the alignment. This includes 15 metres on either side from the centre-line of the extreme track and another 5 metres from the K-Rail boundary. However, minister Saji Cherian said on Monday there wouldn’t be any buffer zone along the alignment while the K-Rail managing director said the buffer zone would be 10 metres — a 5-metre no construction zone and another 5-metre stretch where construction can be done with permission.
The authorities have not yet come out with a concrete answer on the question of buffer zone, indicating the lack of clarity within the government on the issue. The land to be acquired for the project varies depending on the structure that the alignment passes through. While only 15 metres will be acquired for viaducts, 20 metres will be needed for embankments. For cut & cover type of alignment, the DPR itself gives varying measurements of land required — 25 to 40 metres in one place and 20 metres in another.
K-Rail officials said a major part of safety zone will fall within the acquired land. “From technical perspective, the safety zone is calculated in two parts - 15 metres and 5 metres. The 15 metres of one track will be calculated from the centre line of the other track. Therefore it will fall within the acquired land for most types of alignments other than may be viaducts. The other 5 metres won’t be acquired for the project. Here no constructions are allowed,” said one official.
Interestingly, the government has no plans to acquire the 5 metres of no construction zone and the other 5 metres where construction can be carried out with NOC. It has been pointed out that since this 10 metres are adjacent to the alignment, it will be difficult for the land owner to use it for any productive purpose.
Anti-Silverline agitators allege that these inconsistencies were due to deliberate attempts to portray the project as economically feasible.Environmentalist Sridhar Radhakrishnan says a larger buffer zone is needed for the project.
“The preliminary feasibility report says that sound pollution will be high and hence a bigger buffer zone is required. But there’s no follow-up regarding this in other reports. Technically it’s going to be very noisy and hence buffer-zone has to be increased. There’s no concrete data made available on this.” It has also been pointed out that acquisition of more land will be needed considering the geographical pattern.
‘More land will be needed’
It has also been pointed out that acquisition of more land will be needed considering the geographical pattern. Retired IRSE official Alok Kumar Verma has already pointed out that in several stretches the width of the base of the embankments and cuttings may have to be increased by two to three times because even with massive retaining walls and possible ground strengthening methods, it may not be possible to build high embankments resulting in doubling of the requirement of land.