In relief for govt, Kerala high court lifts stay on K Rail land survey
During the hearing, the Union railway ministry had filed an affidavit that the ongoing land acquisition proceedings should be stopped as the financial viability of the project was questionable and it did not agree with the present alignment of K Rail running parallel to the existing lines.
The Kerala High Court on Monday lifted the stay on land survey for the high-speed rail corridor project, K Rail, much to the relief of the state government. A division bench of Chief Justice Mani S Kumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly nullified the single bench order on a plea filed by the government saying it was not heard properly.
It allowed the contention of the government that the survey was held only for assessing the social impact of the project and hence it should be allowed to conduct it as per the Survey and Boundaries Act of Kerala. A single bench of the court had stayed the survey on January 20 forcing the government to move the division bench.
During the hearing, the Union railway ministry had filed an affidavit that the ongoing land acquisition proceedings should be stopped as the financial viability of the project was questionable and it did not agree with the present alignment of K Rail running parallel to the existing lines.
Opposition parties in Kerala and a group of environmental activists are opposing the project vehemently saying it will lead to mass displacement of people and disturb the ecology of the state. Despite stiff opposition the government has maintained that it will go ahead with the project. The Chief Minister sent two letters to PM Modi last month to help expedite the clearance but the BJP rushed a delegation to Delhi last month with a plea not to give clearance to the project.
The government said the ambitious high-speed rail project will be a game-changer for the state but the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have opposed it saying it will turn into another Nandigram for the government and party. (Farmers’ uprising against the small car project in 2007 led to violence and later the fall of the Left Front government in West Bengal).
The project is a high-speed rail network connecting north Kerala’s Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram in the south. It needs 1,383 hectares of land and the state is planning to fund the project using equity funds from the government, foreign lending and part funding from the railway ministry.
The proposed rail link will bring down the travel time between Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram, covering 529.45 km, to only four hours from the existing 12 hours and it will be completed by 2025, the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd, the nodal agency for the proposed project has indicated.
But many experts, including Metro Man E Sreedharan, are of the opinion that high speed trains are not feasible to run on wetlands and its alignment is also flawed.