For three sultry days in January, there was a lot of commotion in the idyllic village of Parakkadavu on the banks of the Chalakudy river that flows through the northern outskirts of Ernakulam district in Kerala. It revolved around the controversial SilverLine project, the proposed 529.45-km semi high-speed rail corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram in the south with Kasaragod in the north at an operating speed touching 200kmph. Votaries see it as a revolutionary move to upgrade travel, while detractors decry it as a vanity scheme, citing budget, technical and environmental concerns.
Growing protests
On January 19 morning, a posse of officials turned up at Triveni, ward 16 of Parakkadavu panchayat, for laying survey stones for the SilverLine project. They hardly expected to face stiff resistance from people with different political affiliations and were forced to beat a hasty retreat.
Comment | The SilverLine project is anti-development
Snubbed, the officials returned the next day, accompanied by the police. “We did not expect them to come back so soon. Most of the people who were part of the protest had gone back to work and the few who were present could not oppose the might of the official machinery,” said Nidhin Saju, member of Triveni and patron of the local K-Rail Virudha Samithi (anti-K-Rail protest committee).
Guarded by police personnel, the officials laid 15 survey stones, some of them in the middle of ripe paddy fields, that day. As discontent grew, it was decided at an emergency meeting of the Samithi that the protest would be amplified. All the survey stones were uprooted by January 21 afternoon. Wreaths were placed on many of them along the alignment of the proposed project.
“We have realised that the proposed rail will go right over our houses and property. It will divide our one-and-a-half acres down the middle. Till date, there has been no official communication from any authority about the acquisition that will leave us displaced from the land where our family has lived all along. Even a notification about a proposed Social Impact Assessment in the media was in English. A majority of the people here are ordinary farmers. How are they expected to understand it,” asked Abhiya Antony, an MBA graduate who passed on the information to others.
Interview | SilverLine rail project will do more harm to environment than declared benefits, says urban designer
The land, she said, is not just immovable property but an emotion for the family. “My father raised us from the income he had made by breaking his back in the field farming nutmeg. We are not against development. But we cannot be evicted from our own land in such an arbitrary and undemocratic manner. We will oppose it with all our strength,” she said.
This emotion appears to only be growing, with village after village along the entire route of the project joining hands to form a State-level movement against this ambitious project of the Pinarayi Vijayan government. The latest protest took place at Elavoor near Angamaly on February 21 where, armed with a High Court nod for continuing the survey, the authorities planted the boundary-marking stones under the watchful eyes of about 300 police personnel. With a total land requirement of 1,383 hectares, the project, according to the protesters, has the potential to evict at least 20,000 families. It will also force about small- and medium-scale commercial establishments along the route to close, they said.
Also read | SilverLine project yet to get Centre’s nod
For the state, the resistance at different locations to the project marks a sharp change from the usual protest marches or meetings organised by political parties. Along with this grass-roots antagonism, political support for the anti-project movement too has been forthcoming of late, with the opposition parties led by the Congress staging State-wide campaigns.
The recent clarification by the Union government that it has yet to give a final nod to the project owing to lack of certain details in the project report has served as an interim relief to the protesters. They, however, have decided to persist with the protests till the project is dropped.
Primary objections
The politically symbolic project has already run into serious controversy even as the State government presses ahead with its plan to complete SilverLine by 2025. Last month, the government announced a ₹13,265 crore compensation package that promises up to four times the market value of land that would be acquired for the project. It added that a one-time incentive of ₹4.6 lakh or ₹1.6 lakh along with a house built under norms of the LIFE Mission would also be provided additionally for those who stand to lose their homes.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has emphasised that there is no alternative to the project. But critics, including the Left-leaning Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad, or the People’s Science Movement of Kerala, continue to oppose it from various points of view.
D. Dhanuraj, chairman of the Centre for Public Policy Research, a Kochi-based think tank, cited the fast-ageing Kerala society and the rising trend of migration of youngsters as his primary reasons for opposing the project. “An ageing population generally travels short distances not exceeding 50-60 km. The argument is that faster travel would help the people up north quickly access better healthcare facilities, but ideally, the government should be able to provide these in their immediate neighbourhood. Further, the focus should be on providing quality higher education and employment creation if the government wants to reverse the migration of employable youth,” he said.
Comment | Is SilverLine on the right track?
“The daily railway passenger traffic in Kerala was, on average, about 2.5 lakh in the pre-pandemic times. But daily ridership projection for the standalone SilverLine is 80,000. This means a chunk of daily train commuters will have to switch over to the new line for it to be viable,” Dhanuraj said. “Add to that the relatively low average salary in Kerala. How will everyone be able to afford the SilverLine ticket rates? Also, accessing the SilverLine stations, which have been planned well outside cities and mofussils in each district, is not convenient,” he said.
That this rail network envisages a standard gauge even as the Indian Railway network has almost entirely been converted to broad gauge has also drawn flak. There are differences between standard gauge and broad gauge in terms of the size of coaches/wagons, passenger/freight-carrying capacity, speed potential, etc. Kerala Railway Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL or K-Rail) officials say that standard gauge is crucial to obtain loan from multilateral agencies. But the first feasibility report prepared by Systra, the Paris-based general consultant of the KRDCL, recommended a review of the KRDCL’s decision to build the rail line on standard gauge. Alok Kumar Verma, a former Indian Railway Service of Engineers officer, who was earlier a consultant with Systra, regards this as the biggest handicap of the project. “If you make it a stand-alone project, it will serve only those who travel during the day from one city to another within Kerala. As it remains cut off from the Indian Railways network, an inter-State passenger will have to switch lines at some point and the K-Rail authorities are silent about how this shift of lines will take place,” he said.
Also read | In a survey, 75% of people oppose SilverLine
According to him, the existing alignment of the SilverLine that has been prepared using the Google Earth topographic data is completely unworkable and will amount to “throwing public money down the drain”. “When the KRDCL and its general consultant tried to adjust this rather imaginary alignment with the actual terrain and ground conditions, they ended up with a roller-coaster alignment having many horizontal and vertical curves,” he said.
As per his estimate, the route has 200 horizontal curves totalling 194.3 km in length, besides 236 vertical curves. The undulating elevation of the SilverLine project is worse than that of the Katra-Srinagar line, he said. It will be like a roller-coaster ride and so, put the brakes on the train speed.
Also read | Pinarayi Vijayan says a study is on to lessen the impact of the project
Upgrading the existing Indian Railways line between Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode or constructing a new broad-gauge line between the two locations is what he suggests instead of a stand-alone line. Even if a new broad-gauge line between the two locations is constructed, the total cost will be less than ₹30,000 crore. And this will also ensure that the existing railway stations is part of the line, he said. “Beyond Kozhikode, you have enough capacity to run at least 10 pairs of new trains,” he said.
The project cost is also contentious. The KRDCL’s estimate is ₹63,941 crore, while detractors say the cost could escalate to ₹1.3 lakh crore by the time of completion. With about 60% of this amount to be sourced as term loans, they argue that the additional debt liability will be something that a cash-strapped State like Kerala will find tough to deal with.
Considering that it traverses the entire length of Kerala in a linear fashion, massive embankments erected to protect the railway line could have an adverse impact on the groundwater regime, the water bodies including rivers along its course, and the floodplains, say environmentalists. These are in addition to the concerns over a likely ecocide, triggered by the extraction of 28,60,000 cubic metres of stone ballast, and perimeter walls that are to come up on both sides of the rail embankment (292.73 km of the route length), tearing the State asunder.
‘If not now, when?’
The proponents of the SilverLine project, on the other hand, hail the line as a means of creating better transport links that will fire up industrial growth and help re-balance development across the State for years to come. They insist that people rejecting bold ideas are not going to have the right of way this time.
“If not now, when,” asked the Chief Minister on the new transport capacity, during an event organised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kasaragod district committee in December last year. But the enthusiasm exuded by Vijayan and the CPI(M) has failed to rub off on the second largest constituent of the ruling coalition, the CPI. Although the party has come around to support the project lately, “as a corrective force within the Left front”, it wants the government to tread cautiously.
Pitching in to allay concerns over environmental destruction, KRDCL has argued that getting people out of cars and roads and on to trains will help in the battle against climate change. “The national highways of Kerala now carry over 1.5 crore vehicles and of this, 35.57 lakh are cars and other small vehicles. Road widening may give the State temporary relief. But the roads will once again be choked in another five years and the State will be forced to plan more highways or alternative express roads through its green corridor every 10 years,” argued Ajith Kumar V., Managing Director of KRDCL.
Also read | A call to consider SilverLine’s long-term benefits
Conceding that the project is beset with protests at the local level, he said opposition to SilverLine comes primarily from an alliance of activists and hard-liners “who are against development projects of any kind and have been on a door-to-door campaign against SilverLine”.
So, would KRDCL be ready to redraw the alignment, as suggested by experts, as part of the measures to build confidence in the people? “That’s unlikely, as it might lead to further litigation,” said Kumar. He pointed to the traffic survey conducted as part of the preparation of the detailed project report to emphasise that the project would bring in an annual revenue of about ₹1,605 crore (with a ticket rate of ₹2.75 per km).
Proponents also often speak about how the project will generate employment and stimulate development in the State.
Fears of the project bisecting the State with an average width of just 70 km are unfounded, Kumar said. The railway line passes along an elevated viaduct on pillars and through tunnels for about 137 km, while there will be underpasses or flyovers at every 500 metres of the track in the remaining stretch, he said.
Environmental concerns
None of these points, however, looks good enough to convince the likes of R.V.G. Menon, environmentalist and academic, who, along with 36 other prominent personalities, wrote an open letter to the Chief Minister stating that the project will spell disaster for Kerala in multiple ways.
Also read | Paddy fields comprise 19% of land required for Kerala’s SilverLine project
“That this fast access will bring extraordinary industrial and financial breakthroughs in Kerala, as claimed by K-Rail and the government, is only wishful thinking and not supported by any scientific study or analysis. The present trend is towards ‘working from home’ riding on ever-increasing communication accessibility and therefore, the undue emphasis on extra quick transport is problematic,” he said. Menon also served as president of the Sasthra Sahithya Parishad.
The high or semi high-speed line, in his opinion, has to be in broad gauge and be synchronised with the existing rail system to ensure interoperability. Further, tourism depends more on convenient and well-organised travel networks and not so much on high speed, he said. “In fact, since our USP is the scenic beauty of Kerala, fast-tracking at 200 kmph is hardly the best means to expose it,” he said.
Notwithstanding an assurance from the authorities that the project will not affect wetlands or ecologically sensitive zones as 88 km of the track passes through elevated highways, environmentalists have raised concerns over the project still affecting several ecologically sensitive spots, especially in north Kerala. Some of the places that may be most affected include the famed tourism destinations of Madayippara in Kannur district, the Kadalundi bird sanctuary in Kozhikode district, the Vallikkunnu-Kadalundi community reserve on the borders of Kozhikode and Malappuram district, and the famed Lotus Lake at Thirunavaya in Malappuram district. This is besides several tracts of wetland, paddy fields, rivers and lakes through which the line will pass. For instance, the authorities have claimed that the track will pass through a tunnel beneath Madayippara, which further raises concerns about the conservation of biodiversity there that includes a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants and even rare and endangered ones.
“The alignment in Kannur district is mostly along the existing rail track. But there is a deviation of around 30 km between Payyannur and Cherukunnu. If not for this deviation, Madayipara could have been spared,” said Vivek P.C, a lawyer who is part of the anti-K-Rail protest in Kannur district.
Also read | Kerala CM unveils ₹13,265-crore compensation package for SilverLine
Amidst these raging waves of protests at various levels, there are certain curious exceptions as well. Jinson Jose, a 33-year-old employee with the Indian Railways, is a sympathiser of the CPI(M) and is willing to stand by the project if he is convinced about it and not kept in the dark as is being done now. “What is the point in holding meetings to explain the project to prominent personalities in society? It is the affected people who should be taken into confidence,” he said, hinting at the string of meetings held by the government across the State to sell the project.
The K-Rail authorities too look keen to address this shortcoming and seek to reach out to the local protesters in person. “Once the Social Impact Assessment is over, we will reach out to all the affected persons through meetings at the Panchayat level. Everyone’s concerns will be taken on board,” assured a top official with the KRDCL.
As the scientific discourse among domain experts and grassroots protests continue, the LDF is slowly, yet steadily, proceeding with this grand scheme, in order to cut road travel. The opponents, however, believe that things could finally tilt their way through the court’s intervention and political protests.
With inputs from Aabha Raveendran
