Though Alok Kumar Verma, former Railways Chief Engineer, a critic of the SilverLine semi-high-speed project rail project, has withdrawn from a debate on the project, the war of words between him and the K-Rail authorities is continuing.
As Mr. Verma, who prepared the pre-feasibility report, reiterated the unviability of the project, K-Rail reportedly fielded Swayambhoo Lingam, project director of Systra, the consultancy which prepared the pre-feasibility report and detailed project report, to counter him.
Mr. Lingam reportedly claimed that the Research Design and Standards Organisation, the R&D arm of the Railway Board, had stated in its report that trains would not be able to travel faster than 160 kmph on broad gauge.
Mr. Verma countered this by releasing a ‘report No. CT-20, Rev.2 of Nov 2009’ in public domain and termed the arguments false. He appealed to K-Rail to stop the misinformation campaign regarding the plan for SilverLine by Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) and Systra.
Similarly, K-Rail released a letter by the KRDCL MD to the MD of Systra in 2019 soon after Mr. Verma submitted the pre-feasibility report. The letter says the report submitted by Mr. Verma was not acceptable and cannot be presented to the government as it had not considered the suggestions put forward by the KRDCL. In the report, Mr. Verma says the project was not viable and suggested re-visiting the project proposal. Rejecting his report, the letter asks Systra to re-work the alignment and cost and submit a fresh report.
Mr. Verma on Wednesday asked the government to clarify why it submitted the feasibility report of May 2019 to the Railway Board for in-principle approval in contravention of the rules.
Was it right to give in-principle approval to SilverLine on the basis of Systra’s feasibility report of May 19 that was without ground studies (no topographic, geological, geotechnical, and hydrological surveys) and traffic survey, and used the topographic data of Google Earth to prepare the alignment, he asked.
