Kerala government forms panel to review Metroman’s high-speed rail proposal

Kochi: After scrapping the previous LDF govt’s controversial SilverLine semi-high-speed rail project, UDF govt has constituted a four-member technical committee to examine the alternative Kerala High-Speed Rail (KHSR) corridor project proposed by ‘Metroman’ E Sreedharan. The committee has been tasked with evaluating an interim report prepared and submitted by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (DMRC) and submitting its recommendations within three weeks.The move comes after recent consultations between Sreedharan and chief minister V D Satheesan on the proposed high-speed rail network.The committee, chaired by the secretary of transport (railways), includes specialists J Vinayan (railways), Dr C Veeramani (finance) and Sridhar Radhakrishnan (environment). To streamline administrative processes, NSK Umesh, officer on special duty to the CM, will assist the transport secretary and facilitate the functioning of the panel.Given the project’s importance, govt has set a tight deadline, directing the committee to submit its comprehensive remarks and recommendations within three weeks of the June 5 order.Meanwhile, Sreedharan said: “I welcome the move to form a technical committee to study the project in detail. Only then will the public and govt understand how beneficial the project is.”However, the 93-year-old veteran technocrat cautioned against unnecessary delays if govt decides to proceed with the project. “A single day of administrative delay will increase the final project cost by Rs 3.5 crore due to inflation. Conversely, if work begins promptly and execution is streamlined, saving just one day in the construction schedule will reduce the ultimate project cost by Rs 1 crore,” Sreedharan told TOI.The SilverLine project, championed by Pinarayi govt, had faced widespread public opposition and environmental concerns over large-scale land acquisition and the construction of ground-level embankments. Following the decision to scrap the project, CM Satheesan had indicated that the state would still require an efficient mass transit system to meet future mobility needs and that alternative models would be examined through detailed studies.Sreedharan’s proposal outlines a 473.2-km standard-gauge corridor stretching from Thiruvananthapuram (Poojapura) to Kannur (Mundayad), designed to reduce north-south travel time to just 3.5 hours. The alignment is proposed to be predominantly elevated on pillars, limiting the construction footprint to a 20-metre-wide corridor.The Rs 60,000-crore project is also being pitched as the world’s first “Green Rail Corridor”, powered by a dedicated captive solar energy network that would feed surplus electricity back into the state grid.