Silver line project in Kerala

Democratization of the consultative approach for a project is a?key?to successful completion.?

The Silver Line Project is a semi-high-speed railway project in Kerala that was first proposed in 2009 and will be completed in 2025 by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (K-Rail), a joint venture of the Ministry of Railways and the Government of Kerala. The train crosses 11 districts of Kerala, from Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasargod in the north, with a journey of 529.45 km at a speed of 200 km/h.?

Reasons to go with the project

Kerala needs such a project because it has the lowest average speed rail, about 30–40% less than neighbouring states, and the performance of the existing railway is poor due to a lack of modernisation. The proposed train will run four times faster than the current train running in Kerala, which will cut the duration from 12 hours to 4 hours between Kasargod and Thiruvananthapuram. It will decongest the road traffic by attracting passengers to travel via train, which will not only decrease the number of road accidents but also save about 20 million USD in accident costs.?

????The transportation sector of Kerala emits 24% of CO2, of which 74.5% comes from road vehicles and only 1% from railways. It is estimated by K-Rail that the transportation sector will emit fewer than 2.8 million tonnes of CO2 after the completion of the project.?

?????Kerala is struggling with the outmigration of its people to Gulf countries and the volatility there would make it precarious for Kerala to absorb them into the labour market as it has very little development in secondary and tertiary sectors and the primary sector is more or less stagnated. The proposed project will bring both high-grade and low-grade jobs and help in mitigating this problem. This will also attract a migration of the workforce from northern states such as UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand to solve the problem of the ageing population in Kerala.?

?????Kerala, for its infrastructure development, has to either develop a national highway project or a railway project. The land acquisition required for a railway project is far less than for a national highway project. A smaller number of people will be displaced, and the cost of acquisition per hectare of land will also be lower than for a national highway project.?

?????The train is semi-high-speed and not a high speed train, so the cost will be half that of the latter and the fare charged to customers in a semi-speed train will be Rs 2 per km, where as the fare charged to customers in a high speed train would be more than Rs 8 per km, which will adversely affect its ability to get back its initial investment. Therefore, a semi-speed train is preferred, with the same infrastructure functioning as the present railway.?

Reasons not to go with the project

There are a few serious concerns associated with this project, starting with the displacement of tribes living in those regions. The project requires the acquisition of 1,383 hectares of land, of which 1,198 hectares of land are privately owned. According to a report, approximately 30,000 families will need to be rehabilitated. The lackadaisical approach of bureaucrats and false promises made by the government in rehabilitating indigenous tribes in various infrastructure development projects, such as the government's failure to rehabilitate 40,000 displaced families during the development of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, which is still pending in the Supreme Court of India, is problematic not only for the people but also for the project.?

?????The estimated cost of the project is Rs 63,900 crore, which will be mostly arranged by international multilateral agencies, which will push Kerala into further debt. An interesting fact is that Kerala's per capita debt is the highest among Indian states.?

?????The project will affect the ecological sensitivity of the Western Ghats as the train will cut through precious wetlands, lakes and the pristine nature of the forest, apart from disturbing the lives of animals living in those regions.?

?????According to E. Sreedharan, Metro Man of India, this project will cause an environmental disaster, especially with the flood in this region. It is an ill-conceived project without any proper planning. On the grounds of environmental damage, Professor Madhav Gadgil has also put some reservations on this ongoing project and said that it is against the interests of the people of the state.?

A way ahead for Kerala

The state government must go ahead with this project as it outweighs the negative aspects of the project, but the government has to do a few things. First, the state should conduct a comprehensive environmental impact assessment. It is not required for a railway project, but seeing the sensitivity of the project, an EIA is a must. Second, the state's per capita debt is very high, so the state should request the centre to take some responsibility for debt clearance of projects taken from international multilateral agencies. A total of Rs 63,900 crore is a huge amount of money, so the state government should again try to have a proper audit and cut the cost of the project. Third, there should not be a delay in the rehabilitation of tribes with proper availability of basic rights to proper housing, proper sanitation, and proper drinking facilities. The rehabilitation projects should be completed before the beginning of the Silver Line Project. Fourth, proper consultation with all stakeholders, especially those affected in the region of development, is needed to make it successful.?

?????The success of a government in general and a project in particular lies in the process of democratisation of decision-making. The more consultative and accomodative nature of government in any infrastructure development is bound to succeed. Let's see what happens with the silver line project.?