With the Supreme Court and the High Court upholding the survey and land acquisition procedures of the proposed semi-high-speed SilverLine rail project, the Kerala Rail (K-Rail) Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) authorities hope to complete the survey and laying of alignment stones to start the social impact assessment (SIA) study in two months.
Even at the height of protests against the laying of alignment stones at identified properties, there was political pressure from the State government not to yield to the designs of the protesters and go ahead with the survey and the process of laying of boundary stones, says a government source.
The authorities hope that there would not be any major issues in view of the apex court and High Court orders that upheld the survey and the government order (GO) granting sanction for the acquisition of 955.13 ha of land under the provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR Act), 2013. The GO was later amended by the government, revising the extent of area to be acquired to 1,221 ha through an order dated October 31, 2021.
Irrespective of the protests of the Opposition, the government is of the opinion that the SIA study as contemplated in the LARR Act, 2013 will be conducted by issuance of 4(1) notification, and an expert committee would be constituted to evaluate the study report.
However, the State government will proceed with the land acquisition as per sub-section (2) of Section (8) of the LARR Act, 2013 only after receiving the ‘final approval’ for the project from the Railway Board, which is still under the consideration of the Central government.
