It seems the government was bit apprehensive about taking the SilverLine semi-high-speed rail through the State coastal belt for reasons beyond technical grounds.
A letter by the managing director of Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) to the managing director of Systra, the consultancy that prepared the pre-feasibility report, reveals that the State was apprehensive about drawing the lines through the coastal belt fearing it will disrupt the State’s social harmony, among other reasons.
The letter dated March 25, 2019 was forwarded soon after the pre-feasibility report was submitted by a team of experts led by Alok Kumar Verma, former Railways Chief Engineer who was a lead consultant of Systra then.
The alignment was originally suggested along coastal areas to avoid hillocks, mounds, waterlogged low valleys, and terraces of the midlands to the bare minimum.
The letter says an alignment through the coast will disrupt social harmony of the State, apart from violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms.
At several meetings, it was repeatedly insisted that the socio-economic background of the State has to be taken into account while finalising the alignment. By merely stating the reason that the shore area or the coastal belt is having level ground, the alignment cannot be taken through the coastal area “neglecting” other suburban outlets, industrial parks, IT parks, smart cities etc., which are the future of the State’s development and growth, it says.
Further, construction of heavy infrastructure along the coastline requires heavy foundation structures which will escalate the cost abnormally and also hit the Internal Rate of return (IRR) and the Financial Internal Rate of Return estimations.
It is also of the view that the alignment should have been proposed in general towards the “central side of the State duly making use of the gradient permitted and also other geometry features” which have been agreed by the KRDCL earlier, the letter says.
“The economically and technically viable alignment of SilverLine was through the coastal belt of Kerala. But the alignment was later changed to the midland to protect the vested interests of some. It would now mainly serve the purpose of some realtors, money lenders and technology providers. The coastal alignment was then fixed taking into account the various aspects of CRZ norms,” says Mr Verma.
