Kozhikode: Amid discord between the Kerala government and the union Railways Ministry over the SilverLine semi-high speed rail project in the state, Metroman, E Sreedharan has proposed an alternate rail project with stops at intervals up to 25 km.
As per Sreedharan's proposal, which he has submitted to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, it will take just three and a half hours to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod even as only one-third of the land required by K Rail will need to be acquired. The acquired land will also have the opportunity to be leased back to the owners for agriculture once the construction is completed as per the Metroman's proposal.
“If permission is given, the project will be completed in six years. The first line will be from Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur. Later, it will be extended to Kasaragod,” Sreedharan said.
Sreedharan's semi-speed rail proposal comes at a time when Pinarayi Vijayan is pushing for the K Rail project in the state.
Sreedharan said that his proposal is inspired by the rising accidental deaths in the state.
“Every year, 4,500 people die in road accidents in our state and twice as many are injured. What a tragedy! This should be avoided. If people switch to trains, this will be solved to some extent. People need to be brought from the road to the rail. I prepared the report for the rail project with that in mind”.
Sreedharan said that he had submitted the draft proposal to the Railways, which has not taken any decision in this regard given the state was adamant that K-Rail be implemented in Kerala.
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