KOCHI: The state government-appointed expert committee examining the high-speed rail proposal submitted by Metro Man E Sreedharan has found the project technically feasible and environmentally viable. However, it has concluded that the actual project cost is likely to be nearly double the estimate presented in the proposal.
The four-member panel is expected to submit its report to Chief Minister V D Satheesan next week after completing its evaluation of the ambitious project, which envisages a 473.2-km elevated high-speed rail corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur.
According to sources familiar with the deliberations, the committee has broadly endorsed the proposal’s technical feasibility and found that it poses significantly fewer environmental concerns than the SilverLine semi-high-speed rail project. “The panel has pointed out that since the proposed corridor is fully elevated, there will be no embankments like those envisaged under the SilverLine project. That means Kerala will not effectively be split into two, nor will there be the kind of flood-related concerns associated with large embankments,” a source said.
However, the panel has also identified major concerns over the project’s financial assumptions. While the proposal by Sreedharan, the former MD of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, estimates the project cost at around Rs 57,000 crore, with an overall completion cost of about Rs 60,000 crore, the committee believes the actual expenditure could be nearly twice that figure. The report attributes the likely escalation primarily to Kerala’s highly variable soil conditions.
According to sources, the proposal assumes relatively uniform geological conditions over longer stretches, whereas, in reality, the soil profile changes every few hundred metres, requiring different foundation designs for the elevated pillars.“The soil structure changes drastically across the state. Construction costs for pillars will therefore vary considerably, and these variations have not been adequately factored into the current estimate,” the source said.
‘Realistic cost only after fixing final alignment’
“A realistic cost can only be arrived at once the final alignment is fixed,” the source said.
The committee has also taken into account rising material and labour costs, besides the expenditure involved in powering the corridor entirely through solar energy.
Sources said the lifecycle cost of replacing solar panels after around 15 years also needs to be incorporated into the project’s financial assessment.
The panel is also understood to have raised several technical queries that require further deliberation before the final report is submitted.
One issue that remains unresolved is the alignment near the Kochi airport, where an elevated high-speed corridor could potentially interfere with aircraft flight paths.
The proposal includes only a 6.5-km tunnel in Thiruvananthapuram and does not envisage tunnelling in Ernakulam, aspects that are expected to be examined in greater detail in the committee’s report.
The state government constituted the expert committee on June 6 following the submission of an interim report prepared by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
