Thiruvananthapuram: Amidst stiff opposition to the SilverLine railway project, Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (K-Rail) has intensified its attempts to secure an overseas loan of Rs 33,670 crore, which comes to nearly half of the Rs 63,940 crore estimated total project cost.
The K-Rail has proposed the names of agencies such as Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to the central government for foreign funding. The Kerala government has given an assurance to the Centre that it would bear any financial burden in the future with regard to the project.
The ADB had already made a preliminary assessment about the project based on its interaction with the officials of the K-Rail. But once the central government gives clearance for foreign funding for the project, the ADB will make an in-depth study of the project.
Earlier, the central government gave permission to the state for going ahead with its moves to find foreign funding for the project after it gave in-principle nod for the project. So, there is no need for the state to wait for the final approval of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) by the central government.
Apart from foreign funding, the Kerala government will spend Rs 18,150 crore on its own and the central government will chip in with Rs 6,313 crore. An amount of Rs 4,251 crore will have to be raised through the shares from the public. The state government will have to find out Rs 1,525 crore for acquiring land for the purpose of land pooling.
SilverLine is billed as the biggest infrastructure project in Kerala's history. It is expected to reduce the travel time between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod to around four hours with a 530 km rail corridor enabling the movement if semi high-speed trains.