The Semi High Speed Silver Line Rail Project of the Government of Kerala which proposes to connect Kasaragod with Thiruvananthapuram in less than four hours suffered a major setback on Tuesday as the former Chief Engineer of Indian Railways Aloke Kumar Verma described it as an environmental and ecological disaster. Addressing media persons at Kochi on Tuesday, Verma who had conducted the Feasibility study of the project said that the consequences of implementing this rail line would be disastrous and irreversible for an ecologically fragile State like Kerala. “Though the Detailed Project Report states that the rail line would cost Rs 68,000 crore, it can never be completed even by spending three or four times of that money. It will take a minimum of 25 years to complete this project and would put the State to economic ruins,” said Verma.
He also said that the DPR which has been presented to the authorities was not a DPR at all. “It is a crazy report and has no authenticity in it. It has been found that 93 per cent of the land proposed to be acquired for the project is fragile and cannot withstand the impact of such trains,” said Verma.
