Thiruvananthapuram: A day after Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s announcement that the K-Rail SilverLine Project was yet to be sanctioned, the Kerala government has given out official statement that reveals the Centre’s interest in the Rs 64,000-cr semi high-speed rail project.
The Kerala Government has brought out two official letters that suggest that the Centre had already green-signalled the project. One is a letter sent by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on January 15, 2021. The other is an older missive, received by the Chief Secretary from the Ministry of Railways (MoR) on December 17, 2019.
The letter by the Ministry of Railways said that the semi high-speed rail project submitted by Kerala was examined and has been accorded in-principle approval (IPA) for ‘taking up pre-investment activities’. This was the Centre’s first green signal for the SilverLine project. Nirmala Sitharaman’s letter comes a year later, and it hints at the frequent shifts in the Centre’s stand about the project. It says that the 109th Screening Committee meeting of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) held on August 18, 2020, had decided to drop the SilverLine project saying it was better for Kerala to first complete existing projects before taking up fresh ones. At that point, there were 12 ongoing projects worth Rs 5,900 crore and 8 projects in the pipeline worth Rs 37,300 crore.
However, the letter suggests that the DEA had a rethink just two months later, when it held a meeting on October 9 to discuss the Silverline project with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Ministry of Railways and Kerala government. During the meeting, the semi high-speed rail project was given the green signal. Kerala government was asked to work out the funding model and simultaneously begin land acquisition proceedings. ‘It was decided that the Project Implementation Agency (PIA)/Kerala government may engage with JICA to move forward to finalise the designing of packages that would facilitate co-financing and in the meantime land acquisition and other clearances may be expedited by the PIA’, the Union Finance Minister wrote to the Chief Minister.
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Nonetheless, exactly a year later, Union Railway Ashwini Vaishnaw has stated in the Parliament that the project had not yet been sanctioned because its DPR was inadequate. ‘DPR is under examination by the Ministry of Railways. Sufficient details for technical feasibility are not available in the DPR. Therefore, KRDCL has been advised to provide detailed technical documents such as alignment plan, particulars of railway land and private land, crossings over existing railway network, duly depicting affected railway asset through Zonal Railway for detailed examination of the project and to arrive at conclusion about the feasibility of the project’, the union railway minister said.
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