Tracking the new railway proposal for Kerala

Subject : Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

In Kerala, a new semi-high speed railway, expected to cruise at an average speed of 125 kmph has been proposed.

Details:

Set to travel the 420-km Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur north-south corridor, the trains are slated to cover the distance in three and a half hours.
The alignment for the trains will be largely that of the alignment suggested in 2015 for the high-speed rail corridor.

About the new rail project:

The approximately ₹1 lakh crore semi-high speed train project on standard gauge track was mooted recently by technocrat E. Sreedharan.
It is being projected as an alternative to the ₹64,000 crore Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod SilverLine project, which was to cover the 530-km distance at an average speed of about 135 kmph.
The proposed corridor would have a design speed of 200 kmph and can be linked with high-speed or semi-high speed rail projects on standard gauge that could touch Mangaluru and Coimbatore in future.

Why are high speed trains a priority?

Trains in Kerala are operating at rock-bottom speed.
The average speed of express trains is about 50 kmph to as low as 35 kmph.
There are now 1.5 crore vehicles — one vehicle for every two persons — jostling for space on narrow and congested roads which claim the life of over 4,000 people in accidents every year in the State.

What happened to the high-speed rail corridor and the SilverLineproject?

In 2014, the State government entrusted the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) with the task of readying a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a high-speed rail corridor linking Thiruvananthapuram with the northern-most district Kasaragod.
The DPR which was handed over to the government in 2015 was considered too ambitious and costly and failed to take off.
The SilverLineproject, proposed by the KRDCL in 2021 met with massive resistance due to concern over:
- Massive displacement of people
- Being built over a tall embankment
- Worsen the flood situation, as embankment would block natural flow of water