THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a significant development, the LDF government’s semi-high speed rail project, the SilverLine, has got a lease of life with the Railway Board intervening and directing Southern Railway officials to hold discussions with K-Rail Development Corporation to take it forward. The `63,000 crore project, has been in the cold storage for almost one year, with no final clearance from the Railway Ministry.
The Railway Board on November 1, directed the Southern Railway to hold a meeting with the Kerala Rail Development Corporation and submit a detailed response to the board. In his communication to the Southern Railway general manager, Railway Board director F A Ahmad also urged that the matter be treated as most urgent.
Following the directive, the Southern Railway wrote to the Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad Railway divisions to hold talks with K-Rail authorities, sources said. All aspects of the project including land acquisition, detailed project report and funding will come up during discussions.
The preparatory works for the SilverLine project have been put on hold for the past one year. The detailed project report has been pending with the Centre for the past one year. The state government decided to put the work on hold last October when the survey ahead of land acquisition for the project was going on.
The SilverLine project had faced stiff opposition from Congress and the BJP in addition to environmentalists who had opposed the DPR. The land survey had faced stiff opposition from various corners and invite severe criticism. With the Centre refusing to issue its final clearance for the Rs 63,000 crore project citing technical and financial clarifications, the state government announced that it will wait for final clearance from the ministry. The government also called back the revenue staff deputed to the special cell for land acquisition.
However, discussions on the project re-started in July after the government decided to rope in Metro Man E Sreedharan to quell opposition to the project. In an effort to open a new channel of communication with the Union government, state government’s special representative in Delhi K V Thomas met E Sreedharan and held talks about restarting the project.