Kerala States New High Speed Railway
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the proposed Silverline Rail project in the State of Kerala, India. The ruling CPI(M) coalition government is moving forward with the proposal and the oppositions parties are against it. According to the opponents of the undertaking, this project will be a huge financial burden for the people in the coming years. Also, they claim the railway tracks and the fencing will divide the state into two. And they claim, the plan concept is approved without proper environmental impact studies.
K-Rail is a new railway project to connect the southern city of Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod a major town in the north. It will be a joint venture of the Kerala Rail Development Corporation and the Ministry of Railways. The total length of the North-South railway corridor is about 530 Kilometers and will reduce the travel time from 12 hours to four. Silverline trains will run on standard gauge rails and can travel up to 200 KMs per hour speed. Current broad gauge railway tracks are built on uneven terrain with sharp curves. It is impossible to run high-speed trains on those tracks. The new railway lines will pass through 11 revenue districts and will have 11 stops at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Kochi Airport, Thrissur, Tirur, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Kasaragod. Each train, equipped with Electrical Multiple Units (EMU), will depart every 20 minutes and will have 675 seats in two classes. Every day 80,000 passengers will ride on these trains, it is expected.
The Silverline will be a totally new line from Thiruvananthapuram to Tirur where the terrain is more rugged and will run parallel to the existing railway tracks from Tirur to Kasaragod where the land is more level. There will be fences on both sides of the tracks and will have underpasses every 500 meters so people and vehicles can move across the rail lines. 88 kilometers of the track will be elevated and will have 11.53 kilometers of tunnels. Agricultural paddy field crossings will be on pillars to preserve the ecosystem, wetlands, and underground water flows. Distance between the present railway stations at Kollam, Chengannur, and Kottayam and the proposed new Silverline stations are a few kilometers apart. The government is planning to build new townships at the new locations. The total cost of the K-Rail scheme is 64,000 crore Indian Rupees and the project is expected to be complete by 2027.
Kerala is a densely populated state and the landscape has some peculiar physical features, like the highlands, rolling hills, and coastal plains. With forty-four rivers, a dozen backwaters, numerous lakes, lagoons, inlet canals, and wetlands the geography is not that friendly to construct Express Highways or High-Speed roads. Kerala’s number of vehicles per 1000 of the population is much higher than the national average and the present road system is inadequate to handle the growing demand. Traffic jams and congested roads have become a major problem. It’s human/ economic impact is severe- wasted travel time, lost productivity, increased vehicle operating costs, the slowdown in the movement of goods and services, environmental pollution, stress, fatigue- all take a toll on the people. If the proposed Silverline could eliminate some vehicles from roads, reduce travel time, and transportation costs, it may be a welcome solution to a growing problem. K-Rail may not be the perfect answer, nonetheless, it is a step in the right direction.
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