Sudden revival of K-Rail project. Railway Board calls for urgent action

Just when it seemed like the 530-km North-south semi high speed rail project (K-Rail) was forgotten, the Central Railway Board has shot off a missive to the Southern Railway on November 1 to "urgently" talk to the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited on the Rs-64,000-crore project and submit detailed comments "at the earliest."

In fact, it is the second letter the Board has written to the Southern Railway in a month directing it to take up the K-Rail project with the KRDCL. The first letter was sent on October 10, and this too wanted the Southern Railway's comments on the semi high speed project. The Southern Railway's comments were submitted to the Board on October 21. According to sources, the letter had stated the Railways longstanding concerns about how the K-Rail alignment would cross over the existing railway network and other issues.

Now, the Board wants the Southern Railway to once again sit with KRDCL officials and thrash out the issues related to the semi high speed corridor.
Last April, the Board had said that K-Rail had not furnished crucial information about the railway land in Kerala even two years after the submission of the Detailed Project Report (DPR). The DPR was submitted on June 24, 2020.

Then, the Board had also raised suspicions about the estimated project cost of Rs 63,940.67 crore. The NITI Aayog had pegged the project cost at Rs.1.26 lakh crore.

It was also said that the KRDCL, which runs the K-Rail project, had offered scant technical details such as the alignment plan even when a clarification was sought by the Board. For instance, the KRDCL gave only a general mention that railway land of an average 7.5 meter width would be needed for the project. There were no details of the areas where the K-Rail crossed the existing rail network. Dissatisfied, the Board had then asked for more clarifications. K-Rail then sent a letter dated September 22 by attaching the sketch of the railway land and the details regarding the geographical position of railway stations in Kerala.

Even after this, on September 25, the Centre had filed a statement in the Supreme Court saying the KRDCL had not provided adequate details.

The Board also wanted to know why the project design, initially conceived as a aerial project, was tweaked later. In the latest plan, the total length of the skyline is now reduced to a total of 88 km.

As it stands, the Railway Ministry has not given the project the go ahead. Nonetheless, the Ministry had transferred Rs 49 crore to K-Rail Limited as its preliminary share component in the joint venture.

Now, K-Rail maintains that it had sent the Board all the details that had been asked for.