Political turbulence and bitter acrimony mar Kerala’s speed rail project Silver Line

@the_news_21

Thiruvananthapuram: Amid the growing turbulence and acrimonious claims and counter claims, Kerala’s proposed semi-high-speed rail corridor project Silver Line has thrown up a high suspense. Will the big-ticket project ever gain traction, or is it destined to run into a dead-end? No one has a clear answer, and is eagerly awaiting the final word from the Centre.

Touted as a game-changer by the CPI(M)-led LDF Government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan continues to exude utmost confidence on putting the project on track soon. The stiff resistance on the ground by people who will get displaced by the project has little impact on his strong advocacy of the project.

The Chief Minister has hedged his personal prestige on the project, brushing aside serious concern shared even by well-meaning quarters that the socio-economic cost it entails could be huge. That he accords prime priority to Silver Line was clearly evident as Vijayan called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last month to clinch the clearance for the project.

The Prime Minister, after courteously receiving the chief minister, referred the matter to the Railway Ministry. The Ministry had expressed strong doubts about the project on multiple counts, right from the beginning. The Chief Minister, however, claimed the Prime Minister’s response to the state’s demand has been positive.

Despite the CM-PM meeting, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party ((BJP) has stepped up its campaign against Silver Line. No less a person than senior leader and Union Minister V Muraleedharan has hit the ground to mobilise public opinion against the project. Would a central minister have come out openly campaigning against a project which is likely to get a green signal from the Ministry of Railways? 

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The opposition Congress-led UDF have also hit the trail, organizing, or inspiring, resistance against the project across the state. The leadership of the faction-ridden Congress has seized on the issue as an opportunity to impart a little verve to the demoralized ranks.

Amid the sound-and-fury over the project, what really annoys the government is the voluntary eruption of   people who genuinely fear that they stand to lose their home and hearth if it is implemented.

The promise of attractive compensation and rehabilitation packages have failed to pacify hundreds of households along the proposed alignment of the 530-km-long Standard Gauge line.

Officials who went to install the stone-markers as part of the ‘social impact’ study of the project faced the wrath of people. Even women and children came out to prevent the officials, with the help of police, from going ahead with the survey in many places. The piled-up stone stumps were uprooted and dumped into canals. They rubbish the government’s claim that what is going on is not the land acquisition process.

The CPI(M) has organized a counter-campaign which saw the party functionaries restoring the discarded stone-markers. The party also accused a section of the media of fuelling unrest. The atmosphere is surcharged, and heating up day-by-day.  

In a relief to the government, the Supreme Court has turned down the plea that sought an order to stall the survey. Despite the apex court ruling, protests still rage.

The rail corridor stretching from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram in the down south to up north Kasaragod, to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 63,490 crore, is touted as a flagship showpiece by the Government. The corridor will reduce the end-to-end running time to four-and-half houses, which now takes around 12 hours.

Many experts hold that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Silver Line is utterly flawed. The real cost will far exceed the estimate shown in DPR and the vital features of the project are either concealed or manipulated. The counter narrative claims that the benefits the project holds far outweigh the initial difficulties.

Envisaged during the first tenure of the Pinarayi Vijayan Government, Silver Line is conceived as a joint venture between the state-floated Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (K-Rail) and the Ministry of Railways.

The project’s implementation will entail heavy borrowings from foreign lender agencies like Japan’s JICA, which requires the guarantee of both the state and the Union government. Though the Centre had given the in-principle nod, the Railway Ministry has repeatedly made it clear that it should not be construed as the final approval.

Amid the uncertainties, the optimism of the chief minister about the project sounds a little inscrutable. It is speculated in corridors of power that he has received some kind of assurance from the highest level at the Centre that the project would be accommodated in one of the foreign collaborative schemes, possibly within the ambit of India-Japan partnership.

The government’s adamant stand on the Silver Line, meanwhile, exposed the double standard of the CPI(M) over big infrastructure projects that need vast swaths of land. The party is still spearheading the farmers’ stir in Palghar district and adjoining areas in Maharashtra against the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project. But in the case of Silver Line, the CPI (M)’s central leadership has been made to quietly fall in line by the powerful state unit. The issue will figure in the CPI (M)’s party congress starting next week in Kannur, Kerala. 

The other partners of the LDF, especially the CPI, are not very enthusiastic about the project.

As the struggle against Silver Line gains traction, a question being whispered even by the Left sympathizers is whether the stand-off between the government and affected millions will turn into a ‘Nandigram’ moment for the country’s lone Communist –led regime. The stir against acquisition of land in Nandigram and the way it was handled drove the last nail on the coffin of the long-ruled Left Front in West Bengal over two decades back.