The Kerala K-Rail Silverline Virudha Janakeeya Samiti that has been demanding scrapping of the ₹63,941-crore Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod SilverLine semi-high-speed rail corridor has decided to resume its agitation after Railway Board recently directed Southern Railway to hold discussions with Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd. (K-Rail) on issues related to the project and to submit a report.
This comes in the wake of a State committee meeting of the samiti held at Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. It was decided to hold zonal-level marches, dharnas, and discussions across Kerala this month in order to create awareness about the ‘real intentions’ behind the project.
“The move to revive the 530-km SilverLine project is being seen as an attempt to get possession of 105 hectares of railway land across 199 kms in the State for the project. Such tracts of land are crucial for laying new tracks and other critical projects to speed up train movement and handing over possession to K-Rail will stifle such projects. The move to get possession of Railway land is in stark contrast with the State government’s inordinate delay in handing over land needed for augmenting tracks and other railway-development projects,” said M.P. Baburaj, chairman of the samiti.
