Opposed SilverLine due to environmental impact, expects govt consider my proposal: E Sreedharan

Kochi: BJP leader and acclaimed engineer E Sreedharan has stated that he opposes the implementation of Kerala’s SilverLine semi-high speed rail corridor owing to the environmental impact of the project.

In a brief interview with mathrubhumi.com, Sreedharan expressed his optimism about the state government considering his proposal to implement a high-speed railway system in Kerala. He has submitted a report to the government following discussions with Prof KV Thomas, the Kerala government’s special representative in New Delhi.

"The majority of the railway track proposed under the SilverLine will be constructed on the ground, causing significant environmental problems. It is difficult to raise foreign funding for projects like these or get approval from the Indian Railway Board. However, I presented an environment-friendly proposal that could be adopted without public outrage," he said.

According to the plan of Sreedharan, travel time between Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur would be 3 hours and 30 minutes. The service will initially be available up to Kannur. A traffic survey showed that 150 passengers would be using the service beyond Kannur. Therefore, the network beyond Kannur is not cost-effective, he opined.

"Compared to the SilverLine Project, the construction activities would be finished swiftly. The train bogies can be constructed within the country," he said. 

It may be noted that the 529.45 km-long SilverLine from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod claims to cover the route in 4 hours. However, there will be more stops based on the number of passengers rather than the SilverLine's one stop per district, said Sreedharan.

"The elevated pathway will be 10 metres wide. Only 20 per cent of land required for SilverLine would be acquired for this project. The trains could operate every five minutes. The journey would be cheaper," he said. He added that the proposed project would cost around Rs 1 lakh crore. SilverLine’s cost in the Detailed Project Report is Rs 63,940.67 crore. Sreedharan says this is highly underestimated.

He also suggested establishing a semi-high-speed system initially and later unifying it with the union government’s High-Speed Railway Network.