Kerala CM tones down stand on SilverLine rail project

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who until now had been adamant about his government’s propose semi high-speed rail project implementation in the state, on Tuesday said the project’s future is now dependent on the Centre’s approval.

The CM’s revised stand is being seen as easing off the project, which he had earlier asserted would be implemented at any cost. SilverLine, or K-Rail, was one of Left Democratic Front government’s highlights in the recent Thrikkakkara by-poll and local body election campaigns. Some speculated that the election results—which were not in favour of the CPM—could be the reason behind Pinarayi’s change of mind.

Opposition parties claimed that the election results must be considered as people's mandate against the SilverLine project.

Pinarayi’s statement, showing his change of attitude towards the rail project, was made while inaugurating a workshop in the state capital on the party’s vision document for new Kerala. He said that the Centre’s nod was essential for the SilverLine project.

Although the BJP at the Centre had initially been in favour of the project, the opposition by the party’s Kerala unit has now made the central government reluctant about the semi high-speed rail project.

Nonetheless, the CM also alleged that the Congress and the BJP objected to the project as they feared it would be advantageous to the ruling CPM-led LDF government.

According to S Rajeevan, general secretary of the anti-SilverLine action council, the LDF government had no other option than dropping the project as the people's resentment was evident in the by-poll result. Rajeevan also pointed out that even the Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad—considered to be a pro-Left science movement—had recently passed a resolution against the SilverLine project.

All these protests must have been an eye-opener for the government, which led to Pinarayi’s change of attitude towards the project, he said.

The proposed 530-kilometre greenfield rail line across the state was being projected by the LDF government as a major infrastructure project that would reduce the travel time from Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasargod in the north to just four hours—at present it takes at least ten hours by road and rail.

Since its announcement, the project, with an estimated cost of over Rs one lakh crore, faced stiff opposition as it involved massive evictions, not to mention environmental concerns and the government’s depleted finances.

After the demarcation stone laying for the project faced severe protests, the government had decided to conduct GPS-based surveys to conduct the social impact assessment. However, sources say that at present there were few project-related activities happening.