The most significant development is the Union Railway Ministry’s U-turn on the project. The Rs 63, 941 crore project of the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (K-Rail) is a joint venture between the State Government and the Union Ministry of Railways. But, the Centre’s bolt from the blue has upset all calculations of the Kerala Government. The Ministry has given a rude jolt to the LDF Government by expressing its inability to bear liability of the foreign funds for the project. The Ministry’s stand on the issue was conveyed to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in New Delhi recently.

Not surprisingly, Kerala sees the sudden volte-face on the Union Government’s part as a political decision. On their part, the Opposition parties in the State are happy about the setback suffered by the Government as they have all along been opposed to the project which, they say, is not at all in the interest of the State. Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan has been leading the chorus of criticism saying that the Government is going ahead with the project without caring for the adverse economic and environmental impact it will have on the State.

According to Satheesan, the initial claim was that the project would cost only Rs 65,000 crore. But, the Niti Ayog is on record that SilverLine would cost Rs 1.24 lakh crore. By the time it is implemented, the cost could go up further, he pointed out. Moreover, construction of the high embankment for over 50 per cent of the rail line’s length would worsen Kerala’s already dangerous flood situation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has, expectedly, grabbed the opportunity to harass the State Government. The party has made a strong pitch for dropping the project which it says will not benefit majority of the people. Only a small a sliver of the population stands to gain from it as the tickets would be priced beyond the reach of the common man. Union Minister and senior Kerala BJP leader V. Muralidharan said he had already had talks with the Railway Ministry officials. They are all against the project on the ground that the State does not need such a prohibitively costly and environment-hostile project. There is a grain of truth in what the Union Minister says. What Kerala needs now is strengthening of the existing rail line to facilitate introduction of high-speed trains. For instance, Kerala would be greatly benefited by the strengthening of the automatic signal system.

What must cause grave concern to the government is the growing opposition from people to the project. The anti-K-Rail SilverlIne Janakeeya Samiti is already on a satyagraha in front of the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. There is no denying that the protest is gathering traction. Senior Opposition leaders participated in the latest protest before the Secretariat. Leaders who attended the satyagraha asked the State Government to learn appropriate lessons from the floods which battered the state in the recent past. Failure to do so and going ahead with the SilverLine project ignoring the growing resentment against it would be an invitation to disaster. That was the crux of their argument.

There are no two opinions about the apprehensions voiced by the LDF leaders over the project. They are right when they contend that the opposition parties do not want the LDF Government to take credit for implementation of such projects as the SilverLine. The Government says acquisition of land for the project is not all that difficult as being made out by the project detractors. Compared to other developmental projects, acquisition of land needed for SilverLine is minimal.

In his statement made in the Assembly, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stoutly defended the need for SilverLine. The Centre, he pointed out, was in favour of joint ventures initiatives. The sudden change of mind in respect of the SilverLine project is intriguing. The Chief Minister also made it clear that his Government is in no mood to give up the project. Reports have it that the State Government would seek intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the matter. The Government drew attention to the fact that when Pinarayi met Modi in July, the PM had promised all help to implement multi-crore projects in the State. This being the reality, coming days are set to see determined efforts on the part of the Kerala Government to impress upon the Union Government the paramount need for implementation of projects like SilverLine, a sin qua non for the development of infrastructure in the State. (IPA Service)